Nope, because they know better. Who better to impress the fact that demon summoning is bad news than your Uncle, the demon?
But yes, the kids have heard for their whole lives that Dipper is different than other demons, have seen the consequences of demon summoning. It’s why Acacia doesn’t summon Brian for a new eye, for example
.
The Great Nerf Gun War of 2036 was one that covered the entire town.
Many foam darts were lost.
So…so many darts gone.
Ahh & now I’m imaging the deals done to get a stock pile of foam darts returned without having to spend hours searching for them. The price steepens drastically as the war goes on. At the begging one could get a good 50 darts for a few suckers, by the end it cost a pound of candy just for a handful of darts, & you better include a bit extra to keep him from revealing your location to the enemy soldiers surrounding you.
AO3: Start Here; Current Chapter Here
FF.net: Start Here; Current Chapter Here
The teams sent into the forest returned to town a few hours later
victorious. The majority of the manotaurs were trapped in their
caves, most of the gnomes in their colonies, others left hiding in
their homes, the lake and forest themselves and anything too fast or
too dangerous to trap denied the town by spells like the one trapping
the town in its valley, and creatures could be barely made out
flitting or skulking along the edges of the circle, testing its
strength but too fast or strong to catch.
Too strong to catch, but not strong enough to break into the town,
and they sullenly watched from a distance as the teams left to the
accompaniment of wailing of fear and anger and loss rising over the
valley.
Those that weren’t left in the woods were dragged back, spellbound
and wrapped well in rope and chain, caged in the enchanted cages
they’d hauled into town with them. Anything and everything they could
catch and bind, it didn’t matter what, so long as it was magical, was
trapped. Gnome, manotaur, dryad and more, they struggled and cursed
but couldn’t break free of cage or chain, dragged into town or out of
their homes and left guarded in the town square.
If they needed blood to bring Alcor the Dreambender to them and trap
him inside their circle, then the creatures could finally be useful.
And their lives would be useful during the Cleansing, to boost what
magic the Alliance had at their disposal. It didn’t matter how many
died, so long as it was successful.
Really, they should be grateful. For once in their miserable lives,
they’d be doing something worthwhile.
Probably not. Mabel, Henry, and Dipper are pretty good about teaching the kids that outside of Uncle Dipper, summoning demons is very dangerous and absolutely not to be done. Along those lines, they have Dip’s circle engrained into them pretty young-it’s all over the house, so I don’t see them making mistake.
That being said, if they did accidentally summon another demon, Dipper would be there in all of two seconds to kick some ass.
For marypsue, whose idea this was. 🙂
——
Henry looked at Stan, and he tried his best not to quail under the gaze of a man forty years younger than him. Damn he wished it was Mabel or Dipper here instead of Henry. They’d just yell at him, and he could yell back. Henry though. Henry just sighed and looked disappointed.
The tall man sighed and pinched his nose, pushing his glasses up his forehead as he did so. From upstairs both men could hear yelling, splashing, and thumps as Dipper and Mabel tried their best to clean off three overexcited six year olds.
Henry looked at him. “Stan, why did you tell the kids that there were alligators living in the bottom of the outhouse?”
“Hey! You’re the one that didn’t want them going out there and messing around with that old thing!”
His son in l-Henry actually looked over the tops of his thick rimmed glasses, like every librarian in the movies he used to watch with Ford when he was little. Something so cliche shouldn’t have had an effect on him but damn if it didn’t do so.
“All you had to tell them was that the outhouse was dangerous and that they weren’t allowed to play in it.”
Stan snorted. “Like those little hooligans would have just laid down and taken that? No way. You need to put some fear in them! And, alligators…got like, really sharp teeth, and-”
Henry raised an eyebrow. “Oh, you mean really sharp teeth like their uncle? Who also has claws? And occasionally bursts aflame?”
Stan blew a raspberry. “Come on Henry, give the kids some credit. They can tell the difference between their uncle and a alligator.”
“That’s not the point Stan; please don’t try and derail our conversation-”
“And don’t talk down to me son,” Stan asked, voice a little cold.
Henry nodded, recognizing the point, and then went on.
“Stan, for better or worse, the triplets are exposed to danger every day. Their responses are going to be a little…skewed.”
There was a particularly big splash upstairs and Henry winced before going on. “So they’re not going to be scared by that, or think to themselves that they should stay out. They’re going to want to explore.”
Stan stiffened on that last word. “Hey, how was I supposed to know that my crackpot brother kept a secret store room under the outhouse?”
“Okay true, but you should have guessed that Acacia was going to lead Hank and Willow down there.”
The old conman couldn’t help but chuckle at the memory, still fresh and vivid in his mind, of him and Dipper pulling an indignant Acacia last out of the outhouse. She had some how found a mining helmet out of all the junk he still had lying around the Shack, and had given Hank one of his old gas lit lanterns to hold. Willow was buried under massive coils of rope, and they had all found dishtowels that they had stuffed in the back of their shirt collars like capes.
“Grunkle Staaaaan I wanted an alligator tooth!” she had yelled before Mabel had joined them and with her twin hauled the three kids straight to the bathroom to wash up. The triplets were so caked in thick brown dirt that Dipper had blipped them to the tub rather than go through the house.
Henry crossed his arms and looked a little sad, and fuck that shouldn’t have an effect on him but it did goddamnit.
“Stan,” Henry began gently. “I don’t care that you tell the kids big old whoppers like that gerbils eat human flesh, or that peacocks make that noise because they drink milk that little boys and girls don’t finish at the dinner table, or whatever. But just…just think please? Those kids listen to you, you know? They hang on your every word. They take it to heart.”
He smiled at Stan a bit and left the room, going up the stairs to help his wife and brother in law. Stan remained standing in the living room, hand gripped tightly around his cane.
How long had it been since he had someone listen and trust him completely, let alone three someones?
There was a scream from the bathroom upstairs. “NOT THE BUBBLEGUM SHAMPOO MOM NOOOOO-”
Stan grinned.
He was going to have to get more creative with what he told the kids.
When the researcher asks Mrs. Robinson about Alcor, she laughs in his face.
GF AU
TAU AU
DRIFT AU
Mizar trusted
him.
He told himself
that that was enough, that he didn’t need anything else, that he didn’t even
need that.
But the way the
babies hung around him expectatnly, without any prominent fear, the way they
trusted him.
That was just
too precious not to abuse.
He played nice.
He gave stuff
free of charge.
They weren’t
around him without Mabel or Henry to supervise.
Alcor laughed as
he was finally alone with them.
His sister’s
precious, little triplets.
He looked at
Willow and sneered.
She could’ve
been his.
He saw many
alternate universes in his mind stretching in front of him and he saw one where
this didn’t happen. Where the Transcendence didn’t happen.
Willow was his
child.
H I S
Alcor held the
baby in his arms gently and rocked her to sleep, lulling her with his calming
voice. He hummed and she relaxed.
He could drop
her right now.
He would drop
her right now if she wasn’t his.
But she wasn’t.
However, Mabel
was.
Mabel was his
twin, his twin star, his Mizar.
And this child
was hers now.
He didn’t drop
Willow that night.
Alcor observed
her and when she gurgled in her sleep, he gave her a jagged grin.
He set her down
next to Acacia and Hank.
It was a shame
he made a promise to Mizar.
They’d make
beautiful pawns once grown.
He zipped out of
existence, and teleported into the living room.
Mabel and Henry
walked through the main door just at that moment.
He saw horror
wash over Henry before he shcooled his emotions into neutrality. At least he
was quick about it.
Mabel wasn’t as
open with her fear. She trusted him, but she still feared him.
Smart, genius
Mizar.
His gleeful twin
star.
“Were you around
the triplets?”
“Yes.”
“Are they
harmed?” Mabel pressed on, her hands clenched and her body tense.
He looked at her
with mock digust, placed a hand over his chest, and laughed. “You wound me, Mizar. O, how you wound
me!”
“Answer the
question, Dipper!”
“No, I did not harm them. They’re perfectly safe.”
Mabel relaxed.
“Well all right then, was that so hard, Dip?”
“Not at all, Mizar.” He grinned at her.
“Too tired to
play your games.”
‘’Thus we will not play.’’ He leisurely floated to her and placed a
cold, hard claw on her shoulder, pulling her closer. She wrapped her arms
around his body and hugged him.
Henry slowly
walked over to the stairs and climbed up to tend to their children. All he
wanted was for his family to be safe. It was hard with a demon around. A demon
that, luckily, had taken a liking to him.
He thanked his
wife’s ability to talk down the most powerful being in current existence every
day. It had become a mantra.
Henry saw the
triplets safe and sound, checked, rechecked, checked again on top of that, was
satisfied, and climbed back down the creaky stairs of the shack. He spotted his
brother-in-law hugging Mabel and swaying her gently in the air, it looked like
they were dancing, drifting in space and not caring for lost time. She had her
feet on top of his.
‘’Mizar, I care for them, you know.’’ Alcor mused aloud, ‘’I care for you. I would never deliberately harm them. Or you.’’
‘’It’s all
right, Dip-dop. As long as ALL my babies are safe, it’s OK.’’
The demon
snorted.
Mabel tilted her
head as she watched him snicker.
‘’You call
everything fluffy your baby.’’ He rested his head on her head and they drifted
together aimlessly in the living room, gliding past furniture, turning
intangible as not to ruin their spontaneous dance due to said furniture.
Mabel smiled.
This was Dipper.
‘’Do you think
giving your precious blood babies an inside-out pet is appropriate?’’
‘’No, no it’s
not appropriate, Dipping sauce.’’
‘’Boo.’’ He
laughed, it sounded like her brother, not the bloodthirsty demon. ‘’I’m still
going to give them one. It’s bad luck to say no to a demon gift, Mabel. It’s
bad luck, in-deed.’’
Mabel chocked
back a sob.
Alcor continued
dancing with her, his eyes on the human in his arms, a hazy coat of
indecisiveness and confusion cast over them.
‘’Are there two
of you in there?’’ Mabel asked, flinging her head back and staring up at her
taller sibling. Damn him, she wasn’t the Alpha Twin anymore.
‘’No. There is only me.’’
Mabel chuckled. It was sad.
Alcor laughed. He
didn’t know why.
They danced.
Bitter.
Resentful.
Trusting.
‘’You’re putting all of your weight on my toes, I
see, Mizar.’’
‘’You’re a
supernatural being, Dip-dop, you can handle little ol me on your toes as we
dance in air.’’ Mabel clung to him and he’d never drop her. Not even if offered
a better deal. Not even if offered the world nearly finished with its descent
into madness and anarchy.
Alcor and Mizar.
They trusted
each other.
It was the only
thing both were certain of.
‘’Hm…Lil ol
me…I knew I forgot someone on my list.’’
Mabel stopped
dancing, her eyes wide and her body rigid with fear. Henry rose to his feet but
didn’t step closer. He knew his wife’s tells, she didn’t need his help.
‘’Are you going to tell me not to do it? To spare
him, like the good human you are, M I Z A R?’’
‘’No, I am not,
Alcor.’’
‘’Even my Mizar the Gleeful wants him dead.’’ Alcor laughed and it was harsh on her
ears, it reverberated off the walls and chilled the room, freezing their
happiness and slowly trying to replace it with horror. Mabel wouldn’t have
that. She stepped hard on his toes and he nearly flung her off of him. He
didn’t, though. He just growled.
‘’I don’t want
him dead, but after what he did, I won’t stand in your way.’’
‘’Hm…yes…We were 14 when he did that, I was
still too weak to do anything on my own.’’
‘’You know my
opinion of him, Alcor.’’
‘’I thought you liked the lobster.’’
‘’It was my
baby.’’
‘’You and your
babies.’’ The powerful demon snorted.
Mable gave him a
grin and he returned it tenfold more menacing.
She got on her
toes and gently head butted him.
‘’Come on,
Dip-dop, let’s dance.’’
She jumped off
his feet and onto the floor which was about half a metre bellow them. She
turned on the music.
It was BABBA.
Dipper narrowed
his eyes.
‘’This will cost
you.’’
Mabel knew he
could’ve just blipped off of the continent if he didn’t want to dance. There
was nothing keeping him in the shack.
This was of his
volition
Mabel winked at
Dipper and crossed her arms, her face taking on an expression of deep thought.
She snapped her fingers.
‘’I know! Free
dinner for the rest of the week.’’
‘’This comes
with conditions of me behaving properly, correct?’’
‘’Nope. Just
behave like you are now, come after the triplets are asleep.’’
‘’Hmm…You got yourself a deal, Mizar!’’
They shook on
it, and it was blue like Cipher’s fire. Mabel didn’t allow any of those
horrendous memories to seep through her facade with Dipper.
He was her
brother, he was her twin, she loved him, she trusted him, but he was also a
demon.
And demons
couldn’t be trusted with everything.
Especially not a
soul.
Which she gave
him without a moment’s hesitation.
She remembered
blue then.
Blue had been
her personal horror, but it became her salvation.
_____
BABBA’s newest
hits blared as Dipper swung his hips in circular motions with Mabel swirling
glowsitcks and offering up mabel juice. Dipper surprisingly had enough common
sense not to drink it.
Henry never saw
Alcor this relaxed before.
He saw the smile
on his brilliant face, the happiness gleaming in his inverted eyes.
Henry saw Mabel
looking like she finally had her brother back from Hell.
‘’BABBA has lost
all my respect for them, Mabel!’’ This was Dipper. Mabel laughed and asked why.
‘’They’re not true to themselves anymore. Put on the
old stuff I listened to before.’’ Alcor laughed as he heard disco girl come on.
‘’DISCO GIRL!
This brings back memories, Mizar, doesn’t it?’’ His jagged teeth that scared
even the strongest of cultists made Mabel shrug.
‘’Yeah, it sure
does, Dip-dop. It sure does.’’
‘’Do you want to
dance with your flesh bag?’’ Alcor eyed Henry from the corner of his eye.
Mabel looked at
Henry and saw him reluctantly offer up his hand to her.
‘’You don’t want
to dance, Dip?’’ She asked before she took Henry’s hand.
‘’How considerate of you, Mizar. After you insult
me, after you infer that I would harm you and your children, my niblings! – You
ask if I mind if you leave me all alone while you dance with some measly human.
But fine! If this is how you’re going to be I’ll just take all the CDs and
leave the continent.’’
‘’You wanna
dance with us both?’’
‘’No.’’
Mabel grabbed
Dipper’s wrist and he just looked at her hand with complete indifference. He’d
have killed people for less physical touch than this.
‘’We good?’’
Alcor huffed and
swatted her arm off of him.
‘’We’re not b a d.’’
‘’That’s all I’m
asking.’’ She cracked him a smile.
‘’No, you are asking for Dipper back. That’s
a deal I can’t deliver.’’
Mabel nodded solemnly
and gave him a small smile.
These didn’t
suit her. She grinned, she laughed, her smiles were wide, she was the brightest
beacon in a room.
She was
Happiness.
This didn’t suit
her.
Alcor, Dipper
Pines, The Dreambender sneered and took Mabel’s arm. He dug his claws into her
flesh and drew blood. Henry moved. He covered him in flames, they were just
warm enough to warrant a warning, but not enough to hurt.
‘’Henry!’’ Mabel
wriggled in his grasp and he shouted, his yell reverberating off the walls in
demon wrath.
‘’WHY DO YOU KEEP DOING
THIS TO YOURSELF?!’’
There were golden streaks trailing down Alcor’s
cheeks, the grip on her arm turned into a lifeline clung to by someone that
desperately needed it. Mabel noticed the vast, yet undetectable difference. She
grabbed a hold of his other arm.
‘’Because I love
you, Dipper.’’
Her eyes were
full of tears. Both of theirs were.
Human and demon.
Twin stars.
Mabel saw her
brother in that crescendo his inner battle was raging about, and she reached to
touch his face, to mush it with her palms, and demand he tell her the price,
because everything had a price.
Everything did.
This had to. She’d pay for it.
‘’You’re too precious, Mizar.’’
It sounded like
Bill.
It sounded like
Alcor.
Mabel turned
away as her brother laughed and laughed and laughed. Blue flames manifested all
around them and the walls bled. Screeching cries of innocent children began and
Alcor just went silent.
‘’It’s too late
for me, Mizar. It’s in my demon nature to give you false sense of hope, it’s
too delectable not too. Mabel is nothing more than lapsus linguae. Goodbye for
now. See you at dinner. I’m taking my music with me.’’
He blipped out
of existence and all the cds came with him.
‘’He took the philosophy
major vinyl too.’’ Henry pointed out in a sad, broken whisper.
Mabel looked at
her husband, furrowed her brow with creases that shouldn’t be on someone like
her, and then she laughed. He held her and her laughter turned into sobbing.
‘’Mabel, honey,
Mabes, please….What’s wrong? No, wait, that’s a stupid question-‘’
‘’-I don’t know
if I can trust him anymore.’’
likesuitcase-deactivated2018083:
Just something that popped into my head while stalking the transcendence-au blog. Btw is it still fic masterlist open season? i’d like to put this in the list :p anyways, here ya go
What woke Mabel Pines was not, in fact, the deafening wailing coming from her living room, nor the hysterical crying of her children, or the angry yelling of an old man. No, what woke her up was the startlingly cold stream of ceiling dripping down onto her face. She scrambled away from the drip, colliding with two more streams in her haste. She couldn’t really process what exactly was happening, a few tendrils of sleep still latching onto her. As she pulled herself into consciousness, however, she became fully aware that what was happening was most definitely Not Normal.
Mabel, who had learned long ago to wear earplugs at night, now took one out. She immediately regretted it, an obnoxious amount of deafening sound attacking her eardrum. She fumbled with the earplug, re-inserting it as quick as humanly possible. Only then did she realize the thrum in her ears was from the sound around her, and not because she was still groggy. She glanced at her husband, protected from sound and ceiling drip by earplugs and mountains of blankets, and envied him. He didn’t have to get up and deal with whatever Dipper did this time (as obviously the house melting was his fault). Indeed, as she slid out of bed and put on some bright yellow slippers, she took note of the fact that the color was bleeding out of her slowly deteriorating walls. With growing concern, she trotted out of her room and towards the staircase, taking a detour into the triplets’ room (where she found them huddled on Willow’s bottom bunk, avoiding the dripping walls and covering their ears desperately) to hastily find them some earplugs and continue on her way.
Mabel took the stairs two at a time, finding at the bottom a very pissed off Stanley shouting at her brother to shut the hell up before i put up demon wards. It took a bit of work to calm the stubborn old man down, but she did after also presenting him with earplugs. Making sure he was heading back to his room, albeit reluctantly, the twenty-some-odd woman finally managed to make her way into the living room, which was completely devoid of color, and where much of the walls and ceiling were a puddle on the floor. There, she found Dipper sitting on a decades-old leather armchair, clawed hands grabbing fistfuls of his hair while he curled himself into as small a ball as he could manage. What terrified Mabel into stopping dead and staring in horror was the fact that her brother was staring into nothing and just screaming, golden tears flowing freely from his eyes, continuously and with such anguish that she wanted to collapse and sob on the spot.
It took all of Mabel’s willpower to remove her earplugs (useless at this range) and walk forward to kneel in front of Dipper. He didn’t register her presence until she place a gentled hand over one of his, sliding it down to rest on his cheek. He subconsciously leaned into her touch, silencing on contact with her. Slowly, his eyes came back into focus, and he sucked in a shaky breath, tears still streaming down his cheeks. He turned his head slightly to look at his sister and he choked back a sob. When he met the eyes of the exuberant woman in front of him, all he could find in their emerald depths was love and warmth and concern and it was all for him.
“What’s wrong, Dipping Sauce?” Mabel asked shakily, tears pricking at the corners of her eyes.
“I know so much, Mabel,” he whispered, unable to speak any louder. “I know too much. I know you’ll die, and Henry will die, and Acacia and Willow and Hank and I know the exact circumstances and dates and times and I know when everything will come to an end, and I’m scared Mabel I’m so fucking scared-” He knew he was panicking and crying and he could barely get the words out and images were flashing behind his eyes, of death and life and new things and old things and everything ending and it hurt, it hurt so much. He didn’t remember when his gaze had dropped to the floor, but now he turned to look directly into his sister’s eyes. “Mabel, I don’t want you to go.” She was crying now too.
“I wish I could promise you I’ll never leave you,” she choked out, and before he could process what she’d said, he arms were wrapped around him and she was crying and he was crying and they were just a mess, but Dipper could think of nothing better than to be wrapped up in the arms of the person he loved the most.
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