odalibuc:

Starting to get less angsty now that we’re getting through the start of the adjustment period. Ao3 account up soon!

---

Dipper found himself unable to speak. He floated there, numb to the world around him, quite literally. It was like his sense of touch had been exchanged for all these new sense assaulting his mind and making it difficult to concentrate. He followed everyone back inside the shack, mute and forlorn, trying to figure out exactly what he had become.

Dinner was an awkward affair. Wendy had gone home after confirming that the Shack would be closed until it was fixed up, but that starting tomorrow she would be required to assist with that effort. Mabel kept glancing over at her brother, categorizing the changes and trying to reassure him that everything was going to be okay with the same expression.

The dining room table been destroyed in the wake of the last gravitational anomaly and subsequent magical explosion and the stove would require more than just two elderly men and Soos to get it back in place, so the Stans and Mabel worked to shove everything off to the side while Soos drove to town to get a pizza for the five of them. Dipper tried to help but found that he passed through everything no matter how hard he tried to be solid, so he just floated in the middle of the kitchen looking lost.

Soos arrived soon enough with dinner, and everyone sat on the carpeted floor where there was space and dug in. The Stans were sitting together, matching expressions of disbelief etched on their once identical faces. They drank in each other’s image, trying to see what had changed between them and how to fix it. Soos kept glancing over at them as he munched on his infinite pizza, happy that they could be happy and ready to feel his way around the newcomer to the household.

Mabel sat off to the side where Dipper floated near the ground, away from the rest of the group and watching with eyes full of hopeless longing. When Mabel offered him a slice of the pizza, he just sighed as he demonstrated what he’d discovered before the boxes had even opened; his hand passed right through the food like it wasn’t even there. He sat in sullen silence through the rest of the meal.

---

Nighttime was going to be hardest, Dipper decided. He floated above what used to be his bed, knees held close to his chest and hiding his face. He kept an eye on Mabel all night, floating closer and closer subconsciously only to jerk back over the bed when he realized he was literally inches from his sister. The night dragged on, more quiet than he’d ever known the world could be. If he closed his eyes and <i>pushed</i>, kind of like he’d <i>pulled</i> only hours ago but inexplicably different, he could see and feel Mabel’s dreams. When he dared to look, it was a constant replay of the last moments of his conscious humanity, full of horror and anxiety.

He only closed his eyes once that night, and only for a moment.

---

Morning came, but not soon enough. Mabel yawned and sat up, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. A single glance at the clock informed her it was 7:00 am. She tossed a sleepy “morning bro-bro” at the other bed before getting up to feed Waddles, and the events of the previous night hit her like a truck. She gasped and turned to look more closely at her brother, who still floated over his bed looking like a kicked puppy. He looked back at her and said the first thing since Pap-pap Stanley had his mini-breakdown the night before.

“I can’t ever sleep again.” Then he fell silent again. and followed his sister downstairs, floating only an inch from the ground, hoping it would make him more normal.

The Stans were in the kitchen, chatting quietly as they put together a new table. They broke off as Mabel walked in wailing “Grunkle Stan, Dipper’s being a melodramatic doofus!” Stanley sent a bewildered look at his brother, who merely shrugged and turned back to his grandniece.

“What’s he doing now, Mabel?” She sent an indignant Dipper an amused glance before responding.

“He’s been all mopey since last night and the first thing he said to me this morning was,” she pitched her voice down in a ridiculous impression of her brother, “‘I can’t ever sleep again.’ And he’s doing that sad hamster thing with his eyes-“ Dipper squawked again but Mabel pressed on- "And he just needs a hug and someone to tell him he’s normal because I think he’s making slime come out of the walls.”

There was indeed slime coming out of the walls. It was yellow and smelled like sulfur and pancakes. Dipper started stammering apologies, and once Mabel repeated them Grunkle Stan stared hard at where he assumed his grandnephew to be (he was off by three feet) and decided to attempt to comfort him and get his mind off his situation in one fell swoop.

“Kid, I don’t know what happened to ya. I don’t know if your life is going to change beyond the obvious, and I don’t even know if I’m ever going to actually see and hear you again. But if you can manage to make that happen again when I’m bringing suckers through the museum, I will let you have your pick of TV shows for the rest of the month.”

Dipper stiffened as the same niggling voice from the night before came back stronger than ever. He pushed it down again before it could start demanding terrible things of him, but he did consider Stan’s deal. Before he knew what he was doing, he had accidentally pulled his family into the mindscape.

Everyone jerked in surprise and mild horror as their world suddenly became gray and muted. Stanford looked at Dipper, looking over what had changed and what had stayed the same. Stanley looked at his grandchild for the first time, tears in his eyes (which he was fairly sure his brother would tease him for later) as he raked his eyes over the floating form of the child he’d only had a glimpse of the night before.

“Okay broseph, that was seriously weird. Do you have Bill’s powers or something?” Dipper didn’t even look at her. He had straightened out of his previous position, floating higher above the humans below him with some of his teeth unintentionally bared. His hair became wilder, revealing that the birthmark on his forehead had been replaced with a single glowing yellow eye.

“G̡r͏unkļe S̕t̡a̕n͘,̕ you ͘wis͢h̷ ̢f͝oŕ me t̛o̶ ̵make̕ t̸he wa̢ll͡s ͜ǫo̷z̡e̵ ̕th̸at weir̡d̶ ͜śl̛im͜e͘ wh͏en҉e̕v̡er ͠the҉r͜e aré ͢cust̡o͏m͏e͘rs̀ in͞ ͡t͞he ͏muse͠um.̛ ͘I͜n exchange,҉ I͏ w̵i̵l͠l̕ ͘hav́e cònt͞r̢ol o̴ve̶r̀ ͠the ͠TV f҉ór̷ t̨h͡e̵ r͡e͏st ̢of ͟a͝ mo͝nth͢. ̕Is͝ th͢a̢t a̷ d̴̨e͠a͝l?͢͡”

That was different. Grunkle Stan blinked as theories about Dipper’s new species began to click into place. Only one way to find out for sure.

“We have a deal.” And they shook on it, blue fire coating both their hands. With a pop, everyone returned to reality, rubbing their eyes and blinking in confusion.

odalibuc:

Guess what guys! I finished this one! And I’m almost done with number 3! Links on ao3 once my account is up and running.

Outside the Mystery Shack (in need of major repair), Mabel was panicking. The Stans, as she was beginning to think of them, were watching her pace back and forth as she muttered to herself. Every time it looked like she was going to make a break for the shack – damn the consequences she needed to make sure Dipper was okay – Soos would dart forward with surprising speed and put a hand on her shoulder. Mabel would deflate and start pacing again, more worried than before.

Pounding footsteps and heavy breathing alerted her to the arrival of Wendy Corduroy, who looked and sounded like she’d run all the way from town in her effort to check in on the kids she’d gotten so attached to. Wendy looked up to see the same thing that her boss and his look-alike were steadfastly trying to ignore.

The Shack was twisting into itself, grayscale and real colors dancing around each other in their effort to calm themselves. All around her, the woods were alive in ways she’d only seen glimpses of. More pixies than she’d ever seen in her life danced around the  clearing, glowing every color of the rainbow. Firebirds and dragons zoomed past over head, and a grinning she-wolf winked at her before turning and walking away, her fur melting into the visage of a white maiden in an ethereal gown. If she hadn’t been de-sensitized to the strange things that happened around the Pines family, she’d have been seriously weirded out.

“Okay Mister Pines, what happened. There was a huge light coming from this direction, and everything started floating away like gravity turned off or something, and suddenly there’s more crazy things around town than ever before! What-” Wendy cut off as her phone buzzed in her pocket. Her cousin Henry, normally pretty chill, had sent an alarmed text about brownies in his bedroom, along with an accompanying photo to make it clear that he wasn’t talking about the dessert. She sent off a quick reply, something along the lines of ‘just make sure you leave out some honey or maybe porridge for them and you’ll get along fine’ and tried to return to her conversation.

Then she stopped and blinked because  there weren’t any brownies outside of Gravity Falls. She stared at her boss, then looked at Mabel who was more miserable than she’d ever seen. Something clicked and she asked one more question, much more hesitant than before.

“Mabel? Where’s Dipper?” Mabel just started crying.

---

When Dipper woke up, it was to the feeling that something had gone horribly wrong. He floated uneasily off the floor, yelping when he realized he wasn’t touching the ground anymore and flipping over a few times in an effort to stabilize himself, waving his arms like a lunatic and almost hitting himself in the face twice. Looking around, he found that he was in the ruins of the Portal room, and also that his clothes had been torn to shreds. Frowning, he eyed the remains of his vest with a critical eye before a burst of magic settled over him and his old outfit was replaced by a respectable black tuxedo, complete with black vest and gold cummerbund. There were gold triangle cuff links and triangle-shaped buttons on his neatly pressed white undershirt, and after some debate he decided a simple black bow tie would be coolest. He caught a blurry glimpse of himself in a ruined sheet of metal and poofed a black top hat over his head to complete the image. Somehow, it just felt right.

His next order of business was to figure out how to get out of the basement. Considering that a brief once-over told him he was still in the mindscape for some reason, just not his mindscape, he opted for floating through the ceiling. It worked, and he found himself amid the ruins of the gift shop a minute later. He saw figures in the distance, five of them. Each was radiating a blue-ish yellow fire-thing (Blyellow? Blellow? What even?) that he knew meant they were upset, so he floated through the door and over to them, mentally berating himself for forgetting to grab one of the leftover sock puppets so he could at least talk to them until he figured out what was going on.

Mabel looked up from her pacing to ponder making a rush toward the  house and figure out a way to save Dipper when she noticed a figure floating toward them. Distantly, she felt Soos’s hand on her shoulder again, but she paid it no mind. She stood, wide-eyed and shaking, as her brother (in a suit? where’d that come from?) floated towards them, equally wide-eyed and looking for all the world like he’d only been gone for a second and hadn’t been in the center of the biggest explosion of magical power she’d ever witness in her life.

“Dipper…?” She ran over to greet him before anyone else could stop her, and tackle-hugged him so hard that they both fell over. He was okay! He was really okay! He-

Her excitement dulled a little when she saw that he sunk into the ground a little bit and that his eyes had changed. Where once was white with brown so dark most thought it was black, now lived a black so deep her brain actually couldn’t understand how dark it was and a terrifyingly familiar gold that glowed softly in the fading light of dusk.

“Dipper what happened?! Are you okay?! I’m sorry if I made you mad but I trusted Grunkle Stan and when Pap-pap-” In the distance Stanley Pines mouthed ‘Pap-Pap?’ at his brother who just shrugged in return. “-came out of the portal I was so excited that you might meet the author but you weren’t moving and then you were screaming and I didn’t know what to do but you were on fire and everything was exploding and you kept screaming and-“

It was at this point that Grunkle Stan finally blinked out of his confused stupor enough to do more than shrug at his brother out of habit. “Kid? Who’re you talking to? There’s no one there.” Mabel got up from where her tackle landed to glare at Grunkle Stan.

"Of course there is! I know its been a long day what with you getting arrested and all-” Stanley gave his brother a bewildered but resigned glance before deciding he should just let his granddaughter continue, “but how can you tell me that you don’t see Dipper! I tackled him for goodness’ sake! I know he’s not a ghost, since those’re blue and glow-y and stuff, but he was even floating! How do you miss that!?”

Silence. Everyone stared at her with wide-eyes, even Dipper, who had gotten back up and floated closer to the rest of his family and friends, snapping his fingers in front of their faces and frowning when he got no reaction except a bit of a shiver from them when he got to close.

“Ỳou ͘reaĺĺy͜ c̷ań’͢t ̴se̸e͜ ̧me̢?” Mabel started at the same time that he jerked back with his hands covering his mouth. “What did I just-” Dipper turned to look at Mabel, fear and confusion all over his face. “What’s going o̧n?”

“Dipper, I-” Mabel moved closer to him, to try to offer some support.

“I’̢͜͢l̀l̵͠” He cleared his throat before continuing. “I’ll be right back.” And Dipper floated off, deaf to her pleas to stay.

---

Grunkle Stan had spent the majority of his day worrying about the kids’ reaction to the portals, worrying about not making it home in time to see his brother step out of the portal, and now more recently worrying that the hole he’d punched through the fabric of space and time had killed his great-nephew. All in all, not the best day so far. Well, he had his brother back, but that was about the only good thing that had happened besides the water balloons and fireworks.

To tell the truth, he was absolutely terrified when the same blue fire from so long ago started pouring off of Dipper, and even more so when he swore he could hear Bill’s obnoxious laughter. It was all he could do to drag Soos to his feet, hoist Mabel up under his arm, and make a break for the emergency exit before the portal exploded and took everyone in the basement with it.

Mabel’s pacing after they got outside and her anger subsided was only grating on his nerves worse. Stan could sense the unease coming off his brother, but was grateful that he (like always) had the tact to wait until Mabel could start grieving or rejoicing, depending on how the rest of the evening went.

His heart damn near broke when she stood ramrod straight and whispered her brother’s name under her breath, almost like a question, a plea to whatever gods might be listening that her brother was okay.

His heart damn near stopped when she bolted towards the house with her brother’s name escaping her delighted lips and she tackled the air in front of her and she fell in slow-motion. He previously would have attributed that to the gravitational anomalies that had peppered the town since the portal neared total activation, but with its destruction nothing could have caused that now.

Then Mabel started babbling at the ground beneath her and Stan knew she was smart, that she wasn’t the type to go insane or start hallucinating if and when something like this went down, and another horrifying thought broke into his already exhausted mind.

Was Dipper dead?

No.

It couldn’t be.

Ghosts, as Mabel was saying, were visible unless they didn’t want to be and they glowed blue and how did Mabel figure this out? He shuddered briefly as an unseasonably cold wind washed over him, along with a sense of foreboding he’d felt too many times today, except this time with a new, undefinable twist.

Then he heard a faint voice in the wind, warped and echoing and oh god that sounded like Dipper but his voice was different oh god. Mabel started more violently than he did, so she must have heard it more clearly. A few seconds later, a fragment of a sentence drifted back to him, and then suddenly the air shifted and the clearing was inexplicably warmer than it was before.

Mabel waited as patiently as she could, but Stan saw her all but vibrate with anxiety. She looked in the direction of the attic window, and Stan chanced another question.

“Kid? What just happened?” She finally tore her gaze away from the shack and turned back to her understandably confused family. She sighed and thought for a moment before answering.

“Dipper looks different and none of you can see him, and I don’t think you can hear him either. I think he went to get a sock puppet to talk to us with like what happened when Bill pulled him out of his body.”

Okay. That wasn’t what he was expecting to hear. He also didn’t think he wanted to hear the rest of the story. But she’d trusted him about his brother, so he figured he’d better return that trust.

“I believe you kid.” He couldn’t see it, but Wendy and Soos were nodding along behind him. Even if they had been in front of him he wouldn’t have noticed they stood together in their belief because he was so focused on the child in front of him.

After all… neither of them would ever even consider lying about their brothers.