Gravity Falls-Lucky Three: One Crazy Summer

Welcome everyone!

*IF YOU ARE READING THIS IN THE FUTURE THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN POLISHED/UPDATED!!*

Now that I think I have gotten better and better with my writing, I have been going back and redoing the earlier chapters to make them better than they were before. (Look at my note for more information.)

If you want the current version if the story, you can find it on fanfiction here:

But don't worry, nothing about the actual story will be changed! So if you're new to my fanfic, here's the basicrundown of it:

In this story the OC character's name is Mason. I am aware that this is Dipper's real name however I find it fitting and somewhat cute for this character, I will have to find a substitute though.) Instead of Mabel in the original show, Mason will be the one wearing sweaters and has a bright and cheerful personality. He is also based off a genderbend post I saw on the Gravity Falls subreddit.

Here is that post:

https/r/gravityfalls/s/ujfspgTKZI

Mason will also be paired with another OC i have created.

As for Dipper, he will basically be the same nerdy and dorky person we all know and love. Mabel will be a somewhat of a mix between the two. She likes a good adventure once in a while but also likes to have fun. She still loves and crafts and is still boy crazy, and she cares deeply for her family and friends.

Also, this fic was also inspired by Cowboy Alchemist's story Weirder Things. So thank you to him for coming up with a great story and inspiring me to make my own story.

Now with all of that out of the way, let's begin!

I own nothing but the OC'S.

Gravity Falls is property of Disney and Alex Hirsch.

Dlsjvtl av Nyhcpaf Mhssz

________________________________________

Ahh summer break.

A time for leisure.

Recreation.

Taking things easy.

The sun was shining high above Gravity Falls, a backwoods kind of rural town located in the heart of Oregon. It was a small place with a population barely under eight-thousand and as you will soon come to learn, the citizens of that fair town can be stranger than fiction. On this particular day, the birds were chirping and the wind was blowing. A light fog covered the sky though bits of sunlight poked through it. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

AN: I've based the look and feel of the town off of this collection of images/aesthetic:

Unless you're me.

On a small hill in the forest, there was a sign that read, Welcome To Gravity Falls. Behind the text was an image of the woods in a sunset. However, seemingly out of nowhere, a golf cart suddenly crashed through the sign, completely shattering it to pieces and the vehicle landed on a dirt road beneath the hill. It swerved all over on the dirt before the driver managed to regain control over the vehicle again.

Inside the gold cart were three occupants, three twelve-year-old siblings: two boys and a girl. One of the boys was the one driving, and it was a wonder how he was even able to do so, much less drive it well. The trees behind them began to rustle and move around. Thunderous footsteps shook the ground as a giant black mass poked out from the treeline as it chased them.

The girl had chocolate long brown hair that reaches her hips and curls towards the bottom, a little tuft of hair on the back of her head, and brown hazel eyes like the other two boys. She also had round blush cheeks. She wore a purple shirt with a crescent moon on it under a green corduroy jacket, a white skirt, and white ankles socks poking out of purple sneakers. "It's getting closer!" The girl said fearfully, looking over her shoulder at whatever was chasing the vehicle.

"Dipper what do we do?!" One of the boys yelled frantically over the golf cart engine and blowing winds from the speed. The boy's hair was neatly combed with bangs brushed down the side of his forehead just above his eyes. He was wearing a plain yellow shirt under a turquoise sweater, despite the heat, with a yellow shooting star, accompanied by a purple, teal and orange-striped tail falling toward the left. Along with dark grey short shorts. White socks with a red stripe and grey sneakers completed the look. He also had braces. "Can't this go any faster?" He added.

The boy, now known as Dipper, was more focused on driving the fleeing cart from the shadow monster. "I don't know!" He shot back due to being under such pressure. "And this is the fastest this shit can go, anymore and we could risk it breaking down!" Dipper was nearly identical to the other boy, only his hair was messier and often left unattended to. Dipper was wearing a plain reddish-orange shirt under a navy blue vest, grey shorts, white socks with a red stripe and the same pair of sneakers as his presumably brother.

The monster gave chase and reached its arms out to grab the moving vehicle. And just before it could catch them Dipper pressed harder on the acceleration pedal and the gold cart floored it forward, barely escaping the giant claws. The golf cart hit a pile of rocks and caused it to spin around then land back on the road.

My name is Dipper Pines. The girl that's about to puke is my sister Mabel. The girl now identified as Mabel is holding her mouth trying her absolute best not to hurt out of a moving vehicle. and the boy that looks like he's gonna pass out is my brother Mason. If it wasn't obvious enough, we're triplets. The Pines triplets.

Behind them, the black mass grabbed a thick tree trunk and ripped the tree straight out of the ground with only its bare hands. It then threw the tree at the golf cart like a football at a rapid speed. The shadow of the tree passed over the golf cart and it crashed on the road a few feet ahead of it. "Look out!" Mabel warned, pointing at the tree. Dipper saw a gap between the tree and the path that poked like it could barely fit the golf cart and accelerated to it. He then turned the wheel as hard as he could towards it and the kids all held each other and yelled, bracing for the worst.

Being chased by a horrifying monster isn't how we expected to start our summer, but I promise, we have a perfectly good reason for all of this.

________________________________________

PLAY MUSIC: GRAVITY FALLS THEME SONG

A time-lapse of the waterfall and a lumberjack statue.

The scene changes to the interior of a bus. The triplets are in one seat asleep.

The scene changes again to outside the Mystery Shack. The triplets are standing looking at the building. There is a puff of smoke behind them and Stan appears.

Dipper

He is flipping through the journal in the woods, and studying a symbol in a tree, not noticing a singular and familiar eye staring at him through the dark trees.

Mabel

She is seen flirting with a boy. After a bit, the boy takes off his jacket, revealing him to be the gnomes again. Mabel pulls out her grappling hook and fights them off.

Mason

The boy is enthusiastically jumping up and down on his bed in the attic bedroom, with a pig in his arms and a big grin.

Stan

When a tourist is turned around looking at a shirt, Stan takes the opportunity to steal money out of the man's wallet.

Soos

He is eating a chocolate bar and trying to complete a task of fixing a pipe under the sink. The pipe suddenly bursts, spraying water everywhere and all over him.

Wendy

She is seen cutting down a tree with her family. They manage to succeed but the tree falls down, nearly missing their house. Wendy shakes her head.

Cut to the Mystery Shack crew camping out in the middle of the woods. Stan is telling them a story about a monster in the woods. The campfire gives off enough light for us to make out a creature behind them.

The three kids are in their attic bedroom laying around when they and objects around them mysteriously begin to float in the air, Dipper is the only one to notice it.

The scene cuts to a bulletin board with pictures of Stan over the years. The board is labeled with "Can't be trusted" and "Who is he"

Cut to the title screen.

THEME SONG ENDS

________________________________________

Let's rewind.

The triplets didn't even know they would be going on this trip in the first place. The three kids were relaxing and being lazy in their living room in their home of Piedmont, California. Sitting on the couch, Dipper was playing a video game while next to him, his sister was drawing in her sketchbook with the amount of focus like this one doodle would grant her into art school on the spot. On the floor, Mason was happily cuddling a cat without a care in the world.

It all began when our parents decided we could use some fresh air.

However a second later, their fun times were shattered when their parents took everything away with excited grins ,yet they didn't reach their eyes. The video game, sketchbook, and cat were replaced by bags and backpacks. Their parents then put sunscreen on the three kids' noses and a hat with a star on Dipper's head. The kids shared a glance and frowned. This couldn't be good.

The next day the kids were herded onto a bus and next thing they knew they were traveling through the Pacific Northwest toward a town they had never heard of before with what Mason said was a stupid name. Finally by noon, they had arrived at their destination. Through the window, a water tower could be seen in the distance, as well as another waterfall. As they crossed into the town limits, the kids suddenly felt a tingle on their skin. This place felt…different. Strange, curious, and a hint of something else they couldn't quite name

So they shipped us up north to quite possibly the most boring town on Earth, Gravity Falls, to stay at our great uncle's place in the woods.

Gravity Falls was a town surrounded by pine forests and mountains that was always foggy and cloudy. It was the kind of town where everyone knew everyone else's business and rumors spread like wildfire, but for some reason nobody ever left. The kind of town where things happened yet nobody seemed to care or notice

And in those miles of wilderness was The Mystery Shack, the building that their uncle owned. The building had no less than four exits. The main entrance, the porch entrance, a small door which leads directly to the floor room, and the gift shop door. The roof with the "GIFT" sign also has a weather vane that has the letters W, H, A, and T, along with a question mark, instead of the usual W, S, N, and E. A big totem pole held up yellow and red ribbons connecting to the main building.

As for the triplets, they were going to be staying in the attic of the building. In the back there were two twin beds and one at the front of the attic next to the door. Their uncle had gone out and gotten the cheapest ones he could find just the day before. On the back wall in between the beds was a triangular shaped window that faced the same direction as the main entrance, multiple old arcade games, the bell rope that comes through the floor from the floor room, an alcove that has a fortune telling machine, as well as a coffin used as a TV table, and one closet.

"I call this one!' Mason chirped with a smile as he ran towards the bed on the right side of the attic. He began jumping on it immediately, therefore claiming it as his before coming to a stop so he could unpack his belongings.

Mabel shrugged and entered the room, deciding to choose the bed closest to the door.

"This attic is so amazing!" Mason exclaimed, while hanging up a poster on the wall. "It feels like we're in a fantasy land!"

"A fantasy land that's giving me splinters," Mabel grumbled, taking her stuff out of her bag. "Check out how many I already have." She held out her hands to reveal at least five of them in her fingers, then dug into her bag to see if she brought tweezers to help.

Meanwhile, Dipper was still not too sure about this environment. He was walking backwards, scoping out the room when his backpack bumped into something behind him. When he turned around, he found himself face to face with a goat standing on his bed. Of course it would pick his.

"And there's a goat on my bed." He said dryly. "That's just great."

But his siblings were more welcoming to the animal. "Well hello there friend." Mabel said, walking up to it with Mason. The goat didn't waste a second before it turned to the young boy and began chewing on his sweater sale.

Mason didn't seem fazed and instead just laughed. "Well yes you can eat my sweater." He said between laughs. Mabel smirked and rolled her eyes while Dipper just stared at them with an unimpressed expression. This was definitely going to be an experience.

Even with our new surroundings, Mason still tended to look on the bright side of things.

After unpacking their stuff, the kids decided to go out into the woods and explore what it had to offer them.

"Yay, grass!" the boy said then rolled down a hill. He passed by Mabel who was examining a squirrel, and Dipper was sitting against a tree, an annoyed expression on his face while a woodpecker pecked at his hat. All he wanted to do was have a peaceful reading/brainstorming session and this bird just wouldn't leave him alone.

But I was having some difficulty adjusting to our new surroundings.

As he was debating on if he should leave it or shoo it away, someone jumped from behind the tree wearing a green monster mask and shouted, "BOO!"

Just as they wanted, Dipper had the living shit scared out of him and he screamed, falling over as he felt his soul leave his body.

The mystery man took off their mask and revealed themselves to be their uncle, who wanted to play a quick prank on him. Their uncle had brown eyes with cataracts, gray eyebrows, and gray hair that is almost always covered by a maroon fez. The fez bore a yellow crescent shape with straight edges and a dot next to it, resembling an oyster with a pearl in it. He bears a somewhat large, droopy, pear-shaped, bumpy, reddish-pinkish nose, large ears, and fair skin.

His outfit consisted of a black suit, with the jacket buttoned closed, a bow tie similar in color to his fez, and a white dress shirt. He also wore big, light brown shoes, the aforementioned fez and his glasses. He frequently carried an eight ball cane with him and often wore an unnecessary eye-patch over one of his eyes while he gave tours.

Seeing his plan had worked, he began laughing and pointing at the boy, slapping his knee for dramatic effects while holding his cane. However he then began coughing violently and he hit himself in the chest to get them to go away. "It was worth it!" He said in between his coughing fit.

Dipper on the other hand didn't look too amused.

And then there was our great uncle Stan…thatguy.

Also known as Mr. Mystery, Stan Pines was the sole owner and creator of The Mystery Shack for thirty years now. His job was mostly scamming innocent tourists and townsfolk then serving them outrageously expensive souvenirs but hey, a man's gotta make a living somehow.

He was currently busy with one of his tours, leading a group through the museum portion of the shack where he showed off all of the "real" supernatural creatures of the town. If it wasn't obvious, all of them were fake.

Our parents had told us that our uncle transformed his house into a tourist trap dubbed the Mystery Shack. But the real mystery was why anyone came to the place at all.

The kids watched as Stan put on his act, and even they had to admit that he was very good at being a guide. "Ladies and gentleman, behold, the Sascrotch!" He exclaimed and gestured towards a poorly made gorilla statue wearing underpants. It was thrown together as good as a kid doing their art project at the very last minute.

But the tourists didn't even notice it was all a scam and fell right for the trick. They clapped and cheered with awe at the creature, and some of them snapped photos of it properly to share with all of their friends.

It wasn't hard to see why Stan would set up his shop in this town, the people here as he said, "Were the dumbest people on this entire floating rock." It was as easy as taking candy from a baby, which was something Stan would absolutely do.

Going back to work in the gift shop, Dipper began sweeping the wooden floor while Mabel went to wipe the windows. The second the Pines kids had arrived in town, Stan was eager to make them work for him, and definitely was going to do it without pay. As he said a roof over their heads and free food was payment enough.

And guess who he made work there, us.

Mason curiously reached out to a plastic eyeball resting on a shelf to get a better look, but his hand was suddenly slapped by Stan's cane. "No touching the merchandise!" The old man scolded him. So Mason picked up the dustpan and helped out his brother with his chore.

It looked like it was going to be the same boring routine for a whole three months straight. But the. today happened and it changed the whole course of this entire summer…

________________________________________

It was their second day in Gravity Falls, and the triplets were once again busy at work in the gift shop. Since they were only in town for one day so far, they still had a lot of adjusting to do. In fact, just last night they were debating whether they should run away back home since Stan gave them a feeling of suspicion about him.

Eventually the decision came down to one tense shake of a Magic 8-ball. In the end, it told them not to run away. So they stayed.

They didn't know, but Stan had overhead all of it.

The work was going smoothly until the bell on the entrance door rang, signaling someone had walked inside. Mabel looked up from in the middle of organizing shirt sizes and her eyes widened with excitement and a grin spread on her face as she saw who it was.

It was a kid that looked to be her age with dark brown hair, wearing a yellow shirt with blue jeans and black sneakers. Why was she so enthusiastic to see this random boy? Well, it might have had to with the fact that he was her newest crush of the week.

Quickly and stealthily going over to the counter, she grabbed a piece of paper off and folded it onto an airplane. The girl then aimed it at the kid and threw it with precision direction. It hit the kids square in the forehead.

Mabel ran across the gift shop, her shoes thumping on the wooden floor, and hid behind a rack of Stan bobbleheads to spy on him as he picked up the note and unfolded it, confused on where it came from and what it was. "He's looking at it! He's looking at it!" She whispered to herself, unable to contain her excitement. You see, like any girl at this age, Mabel had a big obsession over crushes, boys, or just love in general. And it often made her brothers awkward whenever she went off on one of her rambles about how cute some boy was. That happened quite a lot

The kid read the note to himself, a single question on it: "Do you like me?" Underneath it were three boxes to check off for three answer choices. "Yes? Definitely? Absolutely?" Understandably, the kid was weirded out and anxious. He glanced around the shop, not spotting Mabel, then hurried to get out the door.

Mabel frowned as she witnessed it. "Aw man, what gives? I thought rigging it would work." She said, crossing her arms as she pouted over her loss.

"Uh Mabel," A voice behind her said. She looked over to see her two twins cleaning off a jar of (hopefully fake) eyeballs. It was Dipper who got her attention and he continued speaking as he sprayed the jar. "I know you're going through your whole weird girly 'boy crazy' phase, but I think you're overdoing it with the 'crazy' part."

"What?" She exclaimed in defiance and walked up to her brothers with her hands on her hips in defense. "I am not crazy that crazy. And besides, we're in a totally new place! It's my perfect chance to have, you know, an actual romance."

But Dipper shook his head. "Face it Mabel, you're totally obsessed." He countered.

However Mabel was stubborn and turned to her other brother for backup. "Mason, I'm not obsessed, am I?" She asked and expected him to agree, but it didn't go that route.

"Sorry Mabes, but I have to agree with Dippingsauce on this one." Mason said as he wiped down the jar before adding teasingly, "You're so obsessed you made that kid run out scared. But when the roles are reversed, the guy gets called a creep. I see how it is society!"

Mabel gave him a strange look before shaking her head, still not believing her brothers and what they were saying. "You guys are just jealous that you aren't as good of a matchmaker as me. And give me one example on how I'm obsessed." She said that lady part in quotations.

"You've flirted with every guy since we got here." Dipper pointed out.

"Who?"

"The kid you pushed onto a cardboard rack, the guy with the turtle, who else?"

"Don't forget that mattress guy too!" Mason added.

"...okay maybe I can be a little obsessed," Mabel finally admitted before smiling and adding, "but mock all you want, I have a good feeling about this summer. It's all gonna pay off in the end and then I'll rub it in your stupid faces. I'll have a boyfriend in no time!" The young girl then gestured to the museum entrance over her shoulder. "In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the man of my dreams walked in right now."

She and the two boys turned to look at the doorway to the museum, expecting to see Mabel's man of her dreams come through at any second. But instead of a hot boy, the old Stan Pines walked out instead. He burped while clutching his stomach, while holding wooden signs under his arm and a can of Pepsi. "Oh, ugh, not good." The old man groaned as he burped again, the spicy exhale making him cringe.

"Aw really?!" Mabel complained while Dipper and Mason burst out laughing at their sister and her poor luck.

After the two boys had stopped laughing, Stan announced the real reason he had come into the room. "Alright, alright, look alive people. I need someone to go out into the spooky part of the woods and hang up these signs." He said, holding up the wooden arrows.

Immediately the three Pines kids raised their hands and shouted in unison, "Not it!"

"Also not it." A man a few feet away said as he paused drilling a shelf into the wall. This man was named Soos Ramirez, and he was the very first employee at the shack. He's been there long enough that the triplets were still in diapers when he first started. His main job was to be the handyman around the place, and since their arrival has become a good friend and older brother figure to the kids.

Soos was a Latino and has a light brown cap, has light peach fair skin, and buck teeth, similar to those of a beaver. He wears dark brown shoes, beige shorts and a jade green-ish gray shirt with a big dark green poorly painted question mark on the front and the word "Staff" on the back, which is from the Mystery Shack. He also has a double chin and has a few hairs on his face that he glues on himself. He has short light brown hair.

"Nobody asked you Soos." Stan told him.

"I know, and I'm comfortable with that." Soos replied then processed to take a bite out of a chocolate bar and continued working on installing the shelf.

So Stan turned to the only other person left in the shop that he hadn't asked yet. "Wendy, I need you to put up these signs!' He called out to this girl.

Wendy Corduroy was a teenage girl Stan had hired along with Soos, and her job was to man the register. Her outfit consisted of an emerald green plaid shirt with a white tank top underneath, green stub earrings, dark blue jeans, and muddy brown boots, with yellow and orange socks underneath. She was tall, taller than the kids, and had green eyes, a fair complexion, a turned up nose, some freckles, and long red hair just past her hips.

She was reading a magazine with her feet dropped up on the counter, just like she always had. She was a bit of a slacker. When Stan called out to her, the teen sarcastically reached out without her eyes leaving her magazine and said, "I would, but I can't..ugh..reach it..ugh…"

This just irritated Stan even more. "I'd fire all of you if I could." He said dryly then turned his attention back to the kids. Which one would he choose? To figure this out he decided to resort to the classic way. "Okay, let's make it.. eenie, meenie, miney you." He pointed between the three kids and it landed on Dipper.

"Aw what?" Dipper complained. He was always having to do these kinds of things for his uncle. "Every time I'm in those woods I feel like I'm being watched.

"Wait, when did you go into the woods?" Mabel asked, confused.

"Ugh this again." Stan sighed and pinched his nose, annoyed at how many times his nephew brought up this topic.

"I'm telling you something weird is going on in this town!" Dipper stated and pointed at him. It might have just been his constant paranoia, or the fact that he's read too many mystery books involving towns like these, but his gut was telling him that Gravity Falls was much more than just a backwoods town. This place was hiding something. "Even my mosquito bite today spells out beware." He lifted his arm up to the old man for him to see.

"Uh bro, I think that says bewarb." Mason said, looking at the bite. Dipper looked at his arm and noticed that he was right, and quickly hid his arm away from everyone, embarrassed.

Having had enough of this, Stan decided to tell his nephew how it was. "Look kids, the whole 'monsters in the forest' bullshit is just local legend. It was drummed up by guys like me to sell merchandise to guys like that." He said and pointed at a big sweaty man who had walked in at some point during their conversation and was intrigued by a bobblehead.

"So quit being so paranoid." Stan finished and dumped the signs into the boy's arms before walking away.

Seeing no way out of it, Dipper sighed and headed out of the gift shop to start his chore.

His siblings watched him leave before turning to each other, not thinking anything of it. "I have an idea." Mason then said with a mischievous grin that his sister knew all too well.

"Follow him?" Mabel guessed.

"Yep."

________________________________________

An ominous wind began to blow over the pine trees as Dipper was hammering the signs to trees, each one advertising the shack. He grabbed another and nailed it to a tree. "Darn Grunkle Stan." He grumbled as he put a sign up on the nail. "No one believes anything I say."

Yes, he was still upset over this. There were many times since arriving when he really felt strange about the town, that there was more than meets the eye. Whether it was hearing the trees whisper, or shadows that weren't his lingering too long before disappearing. Or just how the townsfolk seemed so…normal, and ignorant. But every time he tried to say something about it his claims were just dismissed and chalked up to him having an overacting imagination like his brother did.

But he knew that no one would believe what some kid had to say, and was half sure even his own siblings didn't believe him, plus that it was just a feeling with no proof so he decided to shut up and stop complaining about it.

The boy walked up to another tree and prepared to hang another sign on it doing the same routine he did with the other signs. However when he went to hammer a nail into this one, a sudden metal *clang* rang out from the tree. "Huh?' Dipper said and immediately stepped back. Then he used the hammer's head to bang on it twice, and the same sound was produced.

Dipper realized that this tree was not made of wood, but of metal. He set the hammer down on the ground and ran his hands along the metal, clearing tons of dust off until his fingers found a slit. A door. Pulling it aside, it opened up to a secret compartment inside the fake tree. There was only a control panel inside with two switches. "Well that was disappointing." The boy said to himself, expecting something much cooler.

But as he would come to discover in just a few moments, he would not be disappointed for much longer.

Dipper flipped one of the switches a few times and it didn't do anything, so he assumed it was just broken. Then he flipped the other switch and this time something did happen. The sound of Gompers the goat bleating and running away behind him caught his attention, turning around and noticing a hole had opened in the ground where the goat had just been.

His curiosity got the better of him and he approached the hole cautiously, being wary of whatever could be in it. Kneeling down, Dipper peered into the hole. "What the hell?" He whispered as he saw what was inside. To his surprise, down in the hole was what appeared to be an old beat up book, covered in dust and spider webs and probably hadn't seen sunlight since the Civil War.

Ignoring all obvious horror movie logic of DON'T investigate weird things you just found, Dipper reached into the hole and pulled the book out, coughing for a bit when he blew all of the dust and webs off. The book's color was burgundy and had various rips and tears on the cover due to age. Two gold lines on its spine and all four of its corners were gold. In the middle of the book, there was a gold hand with six fingers, and the number 3 in the middle. It also looked like there were pages sticking out.

Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, Dipper placed the book on the ground in front of him and flipped it open. The first page had a monocle and the words, property of…but the rest was covered by how old the page was, so he had no way of knowing who it belonged to. Flipping to the next page, it was dated June 18, but there was no year to confirm when it was written. Below it was a journal entry so the boy began to read it to himself. "It's hard to believe it's been six years since I've begun studying the strange and wondrous secrets of Gravity Falls, Oregon."

Now this was interesting. Turning the pages over, he was met with drawings and photographs of multiple creatures and cryptids that were said to reside in Gravity Falls and the forest surrounding it, accompanied with paragraphs of notes about them. They ranged from the adorable such as gnomes, to the downright silly like cursed doors. "What is all this?" He whispered in absolute wonder.

However, one of the pages didn't sound too good when Dipper read it. It was another note left by the unnamed author. "Unfortunately my suspicions have been confirmed. I'm being watched. I must hide this book before he finds it. Remember, in Gravity Falls there is no one you can trust." Understand that message, written in big bold lettering, were the words TRUST NO ONE.

"No one you can trust…" Dipper repeated under his breath as he stood up, tucking the book under his arm. Now that he had it, what was he going to do with it now? He thought about maybe telling Mabel and Mason, but they'd probably just laugh at him and call him a nerd again.

"HI DIPPER!" Someone shouted right into his ear, causing the young boy to scream and nearly drop his new discovery. Taking deep breaths to calm his racing heart, Dipper quickly hid the book into his vest and whirled around. Luckily it was just Mason up to his old antics. Him and Mabel immediately burst into hysterical laughter at his reaction.

"Was that necessary?" Dipper asked with an annoyed expression.

"Yup!'' Mason replied through his laughter, his face beginning to turn red.

"The look on your face," Mabel added as she wiped a tear from her eye. "It was so worth walking for fifteen minutes." She then noticed that he was trying to hide something and gave a teasing smirk. "Watcha' reading? Some nerd thing?" The girl said and attempted to look around Dipper's shoulder to get a better view.

However Dipper curled inward into himself to hide the book better, as he didn't want them to see it. "It's-uh-it's nothing!' he answered a little too quickly with his voice cracking.

"Sure it is." Mabel retorted, rolling his eyes.

"It's nothing!" Mason mocked Dipper while waving his hands with another laugh. "That's you. That's what you sound like."

"Are you actually not going to show us?" Mabel said with a frown as she put her hands on her hips. "We're your family, you know. And besides, whatever it is it can't be that bad can it?"

"Tell us! Tell us! Tell us!" Mason chanted and Mabel joined in.

Dipper knew he had no choice but to tell them, so he pulled the book out from his vest. "Um…" Behind him, Gompers began chewing on the edges of the journal before Dipper shooed him away then turned back to his siblings.

"Let's go somewhere private." He answered.

________________________________________

That 'private' place turned out to be the living room of the Mystery Shack. Once the three kids made it back, Mason and Mabel sat in the recliner chair while Dipper filled his siblings in on what the journal was. "Isn't this amazing?" He asked them with a wide excited grin, turning the book around so he could show them the pages.

Mabel shoved him in a playfully manner while

"Here's what I heard," Mason said, grabbing the book out of his brother's hands and laying down in the chair before flipping through it with absolute disinterest. "Blah blah blah nerd stuff."

"Come on Mason, this is serious." Dipper said with a frown as he snatched the book back. No matter what, Mason always found some way to make fun of him whenever he could. "Grunkle Stan said I was being paranoid but according to this journal, Gravity Falls has a secret dark side! Now no one can say I was being paranoid again. I was right!"

Mabel hopped off the chair and approached her brother, narrowing her eyes at the mysterious book in his hands, not knowing what to make of it so far. "So let me get this straight, you found a journal hidden in the woods that's filled with all these creepy and crazy things and you decided to just…take it?" She said, a little bit confused as normally Dipper wouldn't be so careless.

"Yup." Dipper simply answered with a shrug then added, "and get this, at a certain point, the pages just stop. Like the guy who was writing it mysteriously disappeared."

"Well that's not ominous at all."

Just then the doorbell rang, bringing their attention away from the journal for just a bit. "Who's that?" Dipper asked, looking at his siblings for an answer. Mason just shrugged, the same confusion written on his face as to why anyone would willingly come to the shack at this time.

On the other hand Mabel looked very excited when she heard the doorbell ring. A wide smile instantly spread on the girl's face as she announced, "Well, time to spill the beans," She then knocked over an empty can of beans that was sitting on the dinosaur head next to the chair. "This girl's got a date!" She threw her arms up in celebration.

"Hold on, in the half hour I was gone, hanging up signs you found a boyfriend?" Dipper asked as he pinched his nose, very confused about how this could have happened. They'd only been in town for TWO days.

"I refuse to believe that." Mason added.

But Mabel just smirked very smugly at them with her arms crossed. "Told you I had a good feeling about this summer. I guess I'm just too irresistible " She teased, tossing her hair back dramatically while her brothers still looked on at her in shock. "Well don't just stand there, admit you were wrong!"

Before either could say anything else, the doorbell rang again, prompting Mabel to run out of the room towards it. "Coming!"

The two Pine boys stood there quiet for a few moments before Mason turned to Dipper and asked, "Uh…should we be worried about that?"

Dipper only shook his head in response. "She's probably overreacting, people don't fall in love after they just met." He said, then hopped onto the recliner chair to read the journal and added, "And if she did have a boyfriend, we'd be the first ones to know about it." So Mason shrugged it off and climbed onto the armrest of the recliner so he could read it as well.

"So you actually think all this stuff in here is real?" Mason asked a few moments later, gesturing to the journal.

"I hope so," his brother replied, studying the image of the gnome on the page about its species. "Because now I can go out and investigate, and this summer won't be so boring."

A few seconds later, Stan walked into the doorway with a soda in hand and spotted his two nephews sitting down. "Watcha' reading there slick?" He asked, noticing the book in Dipper's lap, but because of the distance he couldn't exactly see what it was.

Dipper didn't want to be made fun or ridiculed again so he quickly pushed Journal #3 behind him and grabbed the magazine under the can of beans, flipping to a random page. "Oh-I-was-uh I was just catching up on…" He flipped onto the cover so he could see the name, but got the surprise of a lifetime. "...Old Lady Swimwear?"

"Remind me to bleach my eyes out after this." Mason said as he shuddered.

However their uncle merely laughed out loud as he walked up to them. "If you think that's good, you should check out my latest edition of Gold Chains For Old Men Magazine. It's a good issue." He said, watching the boys' faces twist even further. Stan was definitely one of the strangest people they've met.

"Hey guys!" Mabel's voice called out, getting the three Pines boys' attention. They looked over and saw her standing in rhe doorway with probably the most suspicious looking person they'd ever seen. "It's time for you all to meet my new boyfriend!" She said excitedly.

The boy turned around to face them, and to say his appearance was off-putting was an understatement. The boy was significantly taller than her about Wendy's height. He had very pale skin, and dark brown hair that covered one of his eyes. He was wearing a black hoodie however it had a bunch of rips and tears in it, and branches sticking out of the cloth, blue jeans, and black shoes. "Sup.'" That was all the kid said in a deep raspy voice and held up a hand.

"Hey." Dipper responded, though he was studying the boy intensely and suspiciously.

Hi." Mason added, and he was also a bit weirded out by him.

"How's it hanging?" Stan greeted, pointing a finger gun and seemingly saw nothing wrong about him.

Noticing her family's looks, Mabel fot to explaining. "I know, I know, bet you have a lot of questions. We met at the cemetery, he's really deep." She then noticed something about his arm and squeezed it, getting flustered by what she felt. "Ooh, a little bit of…muscle..there."

Dipper decided to immediately start asking him questions, wanting to know as much as he could about him, as he didn't trust him at all. "So what's your name?"

This question seemed to make the boiy nervous for some reason, and he looked around before he blurted out his answer, "Normal…man!" Yup. Totally legit.

"He means Norman." Mabel corrected.

That was when Dipper noticed something on the kid's face, where a spot of something red and sticky was. "Are tou bleeding, Norman?" He asked, pointing to the spot.

Once again thr boy silently panicked. "It's…jam!" He answered quickly after.

This made Mabel gasp. "Shut up, I LOVE jam!" She exclaimed happily, her excitement was growing more and more as she was discovering how much they had in common. The girl shoved his chest playfully and pointed between them. "Look at this! It's like we were fated to meet!"

"So…you wanna go hold hands…or whatever?" Norman asked.

Mabel blushed fiercely under the question and put a hand to her mouth shyly. "Oh my gosh. Don't wait up!" She said before quickly hurrying out of the room. Norman didn't waste any time following her. He pointed a finger gun at the Pines men and banged his head against the doorframe a few times before managing to walk away. Glass could be heard breaking as he left the shack.

Mason turned to his brother, the look on his face said he was not exactly fond of their sister's boyfriend. "You don't like him do you? He asked, reading his brother's expression.

"Nope." Dipper immediately replied. While most would say to never judge a book by its cover, Dipper just couldn't shake the feeling that Norman wasn't what he seemed. It was just too uncanny. Everything about him, how he stuttered when he talked, how he couldn't even walk in a straight line. All of it made his stomach twist, and not on a good way. The whole time Norman was there he had felt super uneasy.

"I don't like him either." Mason said and frowned, crossing his arms whike staring at the doorway his sister's new boyfriend had just left. "He seems fishy."

Dipper then pulled out Journal #3 and said," Well let's see what this has to say."

There was something about Norman that wasn't right, sp we decided to consult the journal.

________________________________________

After Mabel and Norman had left, the Pines brothers went up to the attic and sat in front of another triangular window. Mason picked at his sweater while Dipper looked through the journal, hoping to find any sort of clues that would help reveal the true identity of their sister's boyfriend.

For now he was on a page titled The Undead, and it featured an illustration of one of them that looked awfully familiar. "Find anything yet?" Mason asked as he was starting to get bored. Thankfully Dipper did and replied, "I think so, check this out. Known fir theirbpale skin and bat attitude, these creatures are often mistaken for…teenagers."

"What?" Mason said and raised an eyebrow.

Dipper continued reading. "Beware Gravity Falls's nefarious…" Suddenly he figured out why the illustration looked so familiar, because it looked exactly like Norman. "ZOMBIE!" He exclaimed in horror. His shout echoed throughout the whole house.

Downstairs in his bathroom, Stan was tidying up his bowtoe in the mirror when he heard Dipper's shout. However because of the distance between them, he mistook it for another word.

"Did somebody just say crombie?" He asked to no one in particular as he stared at himself. "What is that? Crombie? That not even a real word. Are you losing your mind?"

Back in the attic, the two boys heard grunts outside and turned around to look out the window. They saw Norman walking towards Mabel with his arms out, acting totally how zombie would; and honestly, if anyone saw this moment right here, they couldn't blame them for thinking that.

"MABEL!" The two boys yelled. Dipper immediately went to help her then but he heard his brother call him back. "Wait, Dipper look!"

Dipper hurried back over to the window to see what was going on. Instead of attacking her, or eating her brains, Norman gave Mabel a necklace made of flowers. The girl smiled when he did this nice gesture. "Dasies, you're so sweet!" Mabel said while blushing.

"That's definitely not something a zombie would do." Mason comment, watching all of it.

Dipper then moved from the window and slapped himself in the head. It didn't make any sense. Just moments ago he was convinced that Norman was a zombie. There were signs, there were clues. He had pieced it together. But now here he was watching his suspect give his sister a ring of flowers. His mind was racing with doubt. "Is our sister really dating a zombie, or am I going nuts?" He asked himself, starting to belive the second option.

"It's a dilemma to be sure." A voice said out of nowhere, startling Dipper and Mason and making the two boys jump, before turning to the source of the voice. Thankfully it was Soos, standing on a ladder to fix a light bulb in the room. "I couldn't help but overhear you talking aloud to yourselves in this big empty room." He continued while working on the light.

Dipper immediately went over to the man so he could have his input on the situation. "Soos, you've seen Mabel's boyfriend. He's gotta be a zombie right?" He asked, desperate for someone to agree with him so he won't be seen as crazy.

Soos thought for a moment, pausing his work on the lightbulb and then asked the two boys, "How many brains did you see the guy eat?"

"We thought he was but he gave her flowers." Mason pointed out.

"Zero." Dipper admitted with a defeated sigh and looked down at the floor.

But what Soos said next surprised him. "Look dude, I believe you. I'm always noticing weird stuff in this town." He told them before narrowing his eyes and pointed his tool at Dipper. "Like the mailman? Pretty sure that dude's a werewolf."

One day, Soos was peacefully eating a sandwich while on his lunch break, sitting on a bench in the park. That was when the mailman walked by. He had orange body hair pretty much covering his whole body. As he passed him, Soos scotted on the bench and pulled his lunch bag closer to him, eyeing the mailman suspiciously.

"But you gotta have evidence." Soos finished his point with some good advice. Having evidence to back up your claims is always better than just throwing out accusations. "Otherwise people are gonna think you're a major league cuckoo clock."

"Soos, you're ahead of your time." Mason said.

Dipper nodded in agreement. "As always Soos, you're right."

"My wisdom is both a blessing, and a curse." The handyman told the two boys.

"Soos, the portable toilets are clogged again!" Stan then called from somewhere downstairs.

"I am needed elsewhere." Soos farewelled them as he put on a serious face. Like something out of a cartoon, he adjusted his hat and backed into the darkness of the hallway, leaving the two Pines boys alone in the attic room.

Dipper closed the journal and turned to his brother, "Alright Mason, it's time to reveal Norman for what he really is," He said with a determined expression. "Ready to go capture some evidence?"

However Mason was much more hesitant. While he was also a bit suspicious of Norman, they didn't have anything concrete that would suggest he was lying, and he wasn't about to go stalk this random kid that could turn out to just be a kid. "I don't know about this Dipper. I mean, I have the same feeling about how mysterious this guy is or whatever, but I don't want to spy on Mabel and ruin her day." He explained with a frown.

"Come on, if we don't then we're not gonna know who he is or what he's going to do. And I don't care if he gives her flowers or holds her hand, I don't trust him!" Dipper said, trying to reason with him.

Mason thought for a moment then sighed. "Okay fine, but if she catches us and gets mad at us, it's not my fault." He said, but didn't sound enthusiastic about it.

Our sister could be in danger. It was time to get some evidence.

________________________________________

They started off by watching Mabel and Norman playing with a Frisbee in the front hard while they hid behind a couple of bushes. Dipper brought a video camera with him so they could capture anything they deemed as 'evidence'. Mabel threw the Frisbee at Norman with a grin, which hit the boy straight in the head and he fell face first on the grass without so much as even attempting to catch it. The two brothers looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

Then they followed them to the Greasy Diner. Instead of opening the door like a normal person, Norman broke glass and turned the door from the inside but was at least a gentleman for letting Mabel go inside first. They headed down the aisle, passing the boys who were sitting in a booth and covering their faces with menus to stay hidden. The two watched as Norman struggled to even walk properly, stumbling around and nearly falling over multiple times..

Lastly, the young couple were happily laughing and running through the town's local cemetery. The same place the two met. But right in the middle of their good times, Norman fell into an open grave, sinking into the dirt. Mabel looked down in concern before his hand shot up and he pulled himself out in a very zombie-like fashion while screaming. The two were silent for a moment, just staring at was other. But then they burst into laughter like nothing even happened. Peeking from behind a grave, Mason looked bored while Dipper looked incredibly frustrated.

Needless to say, he had enough of this.

________________________________________

Later on Mabel was in their attic room brushing her hair in front of a mirror when her brothers walked in. "Mabel, we have to talk about Norman." Dipper informed her in a very serious tone. Based on the evidence collected, he was more than certain that her new boyfriend really was part of the walking dead.

"I know right, isn't he awesome!" she replied enthusiastically, wearing a huge grin. "My first boyfriend and he's already giving me flowers and cherishing me. He's everything I could ever want in a guy. And check out this giant smooch mark he gave me!" The girl turned her head towards them and on her cheek was a big red spot. Her brothers recoiled in disgust.

"Ew!" Mason cried out.

But Mabel only waved her hand, dismissing his disgust. "Oh come on. You won't think it's gross when someone kisses you!" She retorted. "And I was kidding anyway. It was just an accident with the leafblower is all."

Earlier that day, she was going to practice kissing on a picture of Norman. So she took the leafblower and placed it on top of the trash can, then switched it on and put the picture at the front of the tube. No way this could go wrong, right? Well, kids have a habit of not always thinking things through. As so when she leaned in, the picture was sucked in and her mouth was stuck in the tube. Immediately she began to panic and ran around the yard, banging the leafblower onthe ground, attempting to turn it off.

"That was fun." Mabel said, reminiscing on the memory.

"No Mabel, you have to listen." Dipper said, getting back to the subject on hand and the reason he came up to the attic to talk to her. "I'm trying to tell you that Norman is not what he seems." As he said this, he pulled our Journal #3 from his vest, the implication hung in the air.

Mabel raised her eyebrow and said in a joking but also worried manner, "What, you think he's a vampire or something?"

"Nope. Not a vampire." Mason said and shook his head.

"Yup. Guess again sister, shabam!" Dipper exclaimed and opened the journal for her to see the page about zombies. "Ew!" she cried and stepped back. Confused, Dipper turned the journal around and realized he accidentally opened the page that was about the Gnomes. "Oh, I-I'm sorry." He apologized, quickly flipping to the right page. "Shabam!" He then showed her the correct page.

"A zombie? Okay seriously guys, that's not funny at all." Mabel scolded them, while also being confused on how they came to this conclusion.

"I'm not joking!" Dipper said frantically as he put the journal back into his vest's pocket as he paced around the room, listing off all of the wrong things he's witnessed about Norman so far. "The bleeding, breaking windows, coming out of graves," He then turned back to her and pointed a finger at her. "He never blinks! Have you noticed that!"

"That's totally ridiculous!" His sister shot back. "Mason, you don't really believe this crap do you?" She asked, turning to him with a desperate look.

Mason rubbed his arm and looked away. "Well, he dies and acts like a typical zombie. He limbs, he's bleeding. And he can barely speak right. But-but I'm not saying that he is a zombie. All we're saying is to just be careful, okay?" Mason replied, shooting Dipper a quick glance that said to drop the subject before they upset her more.

But it was too late. Mabel's expression then turned to stern one and she glared at her two brothers, placing her fists on her hips. "Well has it ever occurred to either of you that maybe Norman is actually you, know, NORMAL?" Mabel snapped, having had enough of her brothers' accusations. She wasn't about to stand here and let them pick apart things about her boyfriend that they deemed 'suspicious', when every other human in the world did the same exact things.

"So what if he can't talk right, maybe he's just shy! And what if he stumbles around, I don't know. Maybe he just has an injured leg or something? He's not a zombie. He's not a monster or anything in that damn book. You two are just being jerks!" She finished, her face now red from exploding.

"But remember what the journal said about Gravity Falls?' Dipper protested in a frantic whisper. "Trust NO one!"

But she was having none of it. "Listen to me dumb and dumber," She addressed them with a scowl. "Norman and I are going on a date at exactly five o' clock." This made both of her brothers' eyes widened. That was in two hours. "and I'm gonna be ADORABLE." She jabbed a finger deep into Dipper's chest as she said this, pushing him backwards towards the door.

"Mabel- " Mason attempted to calm her down, but she cut him off.

"And he's gonna be dreamy!" She added, again pushing the away from her and into the doorway of the attic room and grabbed the door handle, preparing to shut it.

"But…" Dipper tried to argue back but Mabel ignored him and the two boys were now out of the room.

"And I'm not gonna let you ruin it with one of your crazy CONSPIRACIES!" She yelled furiously and finally slammed the door right in their faces. The impact rattled a vase on a table next to the door, before it fell and shattered on the wooden floor.

Seeing that there was no way to convince her, Dipper sighed defeatedly and sat down against the door. "What are we going to do?" He asked, sounding very depressed. He wanted to be right so badly, wanted to prove to everyone that he wasn't some kid that had no idea what he was talking about. That he wasn't just being paranoid, that he had all the reasons to be suspicious of this town. But because of this he blindly believed everything in a book over logic.

Mason then sat down next to him, picking at his sweater and there was silence between the two boys for a minute before he hesitantly asked, "Dipper, do you think you were being a little bit overprotective here? I told you, all of this was only going to make her upset."

He did have a point. Dipper looked at the ground and instead of answering, he only stayed quiet. And that gave the answer to his brother's question more than anything he could say aloud.

________________________________________

Two hours went by painfully slowly. The more it drew closer to Mabel and Norman's date, the pit in Dipper's stomach only did worsened. Eventually, the time he dreaded had come. At five o' clock, the owl clock in the living room went off with a hoot, signaling the time and was followed by the doorbell ringing. And seconds later Mabel came bounding down the stairs, her shoes thumping on the wood as she slipped into her jacket. "Coming!" She called out.

She excitedly went over to the back porch door and opened it up. As expected, Norman as standing on the other side. "Hey Norman, how do I look?" She asked, standing straight so he could look at her. The girl hasn't changed much from her usual appearance, aside from tying part of her hair in a ponytail resting on one shoulder, and had added a necklace of sparking beads around her neck.

"Shiny." He replied, transfixed on the sparkly beads.

"You always know what to say." She replied with a smile.

From the recliner chair in the living room, her brothers watched as the two held hands and happily strolled away into the forest together. Dipper pulled out the camera and sighed. He and Mason started to watched the videos he took of Mabel and Norman playing hopscotch, the boy took one step and immediately fell. "Soos was right, I'm jaut a major league cuckoo clock. don't have any real evidence." Dipper said depressingly.

Noticing his mood, Mason patted his shoulder gently as an attempt to lift his spirits. "Hey broseph, even if you were totally one hundred percent wrong, which for the record, you probably are" He ingored Dipper sour look and continued. "But at least you did it out of concern and love. All you were doing was just looking out for her. Though maybe next time go immediately go accusing the next person she meets of being an alien or whatever-"

"WAIT WHAT?!" Dipper's sudden shocked exclamation startled Mason enough that he fell off the chair and into the floor with a thud. "What happened?" He demanded while rubbing his head. Dipper turned the camera around and leaned it down so his brother could watch the footage he saw. From his position on the floor, Mason watched what started as an innocent clip of Noeman with his hand around Mabel's shoulder.

But seconds later into the footage, and clear as crystal blue water, Norman's hand FELL OFF his arm. He looked around worried to make sure no one was watching, unaware of the camera; and when he thought the coast was clear he picked his hand back up off the ground and attached it back to his body.

Mason gasped in horror and his eyes winded as he scrambled to his feet. "Dipper, y-you were right!" He stammered. "Norman is a zombie!"

"I was right!" Dipper cheered triumphantly, shooting his arms up to celebrate. He wasn't crazy. He wasn't being paranoid. Then the realization set in quickly afterwards and his victory soon turned to horror and concern for his sister's safety. "I was right!"

"We have to go save Mabel!" Mason exclaimed, running towards the gift shop/museum and then gestured for Dipper to follow him. "Come on!"

The two boys raced into the gift shop in search of their uncle, however upon entering the gift shop they found that the place was empty. And it was the same story for the museum. "Damn it, where is he?" Dipper said, bringing a fist down on the counter. They had no idea where Mabel was now and who knows what Norman was doing.

"Well if he's not here then he must be outside giving one of his tours." Mason suggested. So the two boys trampled over each other in exiting the shack.

Outside in the front yard, Stan was finishing up another tour. He led a group of tourists to the last attraction for the day. It was a stone that looked like it had a face carved into it. "And here we have 'rock that looks like a face' rock. It's a rock that looks like a face." The old man explained to the guests as he presented the stone.

"Does it look like a rock?" A hillbilly asked, raising his hand. This man was wearing nothing but a pair of blue overalls and a couple of flies buzzing around him.

"No, it looks like a face." Stan replied.

"Is it a face?" Asked one of the tourists, one of the same from earlier.

Stan felt his eye twitching. "It's a rock that looks like a face!" He repeated.

Dipper and Mason went up to the group however they were stuck at the back. Mason tried to squeeze past the tourists to get to hisbuncle but they were too bunched together, and he couldn't get through. So he and Dipper started waving their arms around in the air to get their uncle's attention. "Grunkle Stan!" Grunkle Stan!"

But he couldn't hear them, and he was more occupied with this rock argument. "For the fifth time, it's not an actual face!" Stan yelled, frustrated at how damn stupid these people were.

Dipper growled in frustration. They were wasting precious time that they could have used to be going out and searching for their sister. But then Mason tapped his shoulder and pointed off to somewhere. "Dipper, the golf cart!"

Dipper glanced over to the direction Mason was pointing at, and saw Wendy driving back up to the shack in the golf cart. She came to a stop and parked it, then climbed out. The two boys instantly ran over to her, hoping that she could maybe help them. "Wendy!" Dipper called out, getting the redhead's attention as he and Mason stopped in front of her.

"WENDYWENEEDTOUSETHEGOLFCARTSOWECANSAVEOURSISTERFROMAZOMBIE!" Dipper said frantically as he waved his arms.

"She's in danger!" Mason added with a frantic nod.

Wendy just stood there with her arms crossed and a laid back smile. For a moment, the boys feared that she didn't believe them. Who would? However she reached into her pocket and pulled out the keys to the vehicle and dropped them into Dipper's hands. "Try not to hit any pedestrians." She said then gave them a friendly wink and finger before walking away.

Dipper smiled while watching his crush walk away. Then his brother's hurried, "Come on!" brought him back to reality. He quickly shook his and the Pines boys piled onto the golf cart, with Dipper sliding behind the wheel while Mason took his place in the passenger side.

They fastened their seat belts and Dipper started up the golf cart. Dupper began backing out of the yard and as he did they ran into Soos. "Dudes it's me, Soos," The handyman greeted the before handing Mason a shovel. "This is for the zombie."

Soos then handed Dipper a baseball bat. "This is in case you see a piñata."

"Uh..thanks?" Dipper replied, a little bit confused. He set it down into the golf cart and the two boys quickly drove away after.

"Better safe then sorry!" Soos called after them.

________________________________________

Deep into the forest, Mabel was enjoying her time with her boyfriend. So far, their date was more than everything she hoped it would be. There was nothing better than going on a relaxing nature hike with your partner, taking in all of the scenery.

But about half an hour into their walk, Norman began to act strangely. He turned his back to her and began fiddling with his hoodie's zipper in a nervousness she hadn't seen from him before. "Uh Mabel," Norman began, twisting the zipper in his fingers. "Now that we've gotten to know each other, there's…" the bit then let out a deep exhale. "There's something that you should probably know." He said very seriously and a wind began to blow around them.

"Okay," Mabel said, feeling a little bit concerned about how fast his mood had changed. "You can tell me anything." Was he actually going to turn out to be a vampire?

Norman turned around so he could be facing her again. "Alll right, just-just don't freak out okay?" He said, putting his hands up in front of him before grabbing his hoodie zipper again as he got even more nervous. "Just keep an open mind. Be cool!" He slowly pulled his zipper down and grabbed each half of his hoodie.

Mabel's eyes widened as the tension built up, and she took a step back, bracing herself for whatever Norman was about to do.

When the hoodie finally came off, no amount of preparation could have ever prepared her for what the truth about her boyfriend was. Norman was not a zombie, but five gnomes standing on top of another, looking exactly like one you find in a grandmother's garden. The two in the middle held poles with a hand attached to them, and the bottom two were acting as the feet. They all wore the same outfits, consisting of blue shirts and denim overalls. Some had white beards while others were brown, and on each one of their heads were pointy red hats.

"Is this weird? Is this too weird? Do you need to sit down?" The one standing on top of all the others asked. His voice was not deep and raspy anymore, since there was no need to keep playing the act anymore.

"Uhh.." Mabel stammered. All she could do was stare at them with her eyes widened and jaw literally hanging open. Words failed to form properly.

Realizing it was probably a lot to take in, the gnome started to explain. "First off, we're gnomes, get that one out of the way." He began and scratched his beard. Mabel sat on a rock and slapped herself on the head. "Im Jeff…" he said pointing to himself. He then introduced each gnome individually by name. "And that's Carson, Steve, Jason and," He paused when he got to the bottom right gnome in one of the shoes, and this gnome looked a little crazy. "I'm sorry I always forget your name."

"Shmebulock!" The gnome answered, grabbing at the air with his tiny hands.

Jeff snapped his fingers. "Shembulock, yes!"

Still sitting on the rock, Mabel buried her face in her hands as her disappointment took over. Why did she ever think that she finally had the perfect summer romance? She never got this lucky. How could she have been so blind and stupid? Her brothers were right all along.

"Anyways, long story short, us gnomes have been looking for a new queen!" Jeff said with a grin and hopped on one foot on top of the middle gnomes' heads. "Right guys?"

The other four gnomes nodded eagerly while grinning and making grabbing motions . "Queen! Queen! Queen!" They chanted while looking like very evil creatures you should absolutely NOT trust.

"So whaddya say?" Jeff asked anxiously yet hopeful. He then tapped his foot on one of their heads, and the gnomes made a kneeling potion, the same one one would make when proposing. Because this was exactly what Jeff was doing. One of the hands opened up, revealing a box with a fancy engagement ring inside and held it up. Jeff then put his hands together. "Mabel, will you join us in holy matri-gnome-y? Matri-gnome? Matrimony! Blah, I can't talk today."

Mabel felt herself being put on the spot, on one hand, she felt bad for the gnomes, and guessed they'd probably done this in the past and all times ended up with rejection. But on the other hand, a human girl with a magical creature? That was just a little bit too weird. So she exhaled through her teeth, knowing this would hurt their feelings. "Look guys, I'm sorry you're all really sweet," She began and Jeff, who was kidding his head and hoping for a yes, dropped his smile and she felt crushed. "But, I'm a human and your gnomes. And it's just like…what. Yikes."

The gnomes all looked at each other sadly, feeling the same way that Jeff was feeling. But surprisingly they took it well. "We understand," Jeff said, though still crushed. "We won't forget you Mabel."

Mabel smiled, glad that they were taking it well enough, and then turned and began walking away.

"Because we're going to kidnap you."

"Huh?" Mabel immediately whirled around but before she could do anything else, Jeff and the rest of the gnomes jumped at her, and all she could do was scream.

________________________________________

Dipper and Mason were driving on a path through the forest but there was no sign of their sister anywhere. The sun was starting to go down and each second they didn't see Mabel they were only getting more worried. "We've been driving for forever!" Mason groaned, scanning the trees as he feared for his sister's safety. "What if Norman already-"

"He didn't!" Dipper reassured him, trying his best not to freak out but his own voice betrayed his fear. "And whenever we find this zombie, I'm gonna use this shovel to bust his damn head open."

"HELP!" Mabel's terrified scream rang through the forest like a punch to the gut, but they were getting closer to her location. The two boys looked at each other with wide eyes before Dipper pressed down on the gas pedal and accelerated the golf cart. "Hold on Mabel! We're coming!" He shouted, hoping he could hear her.

Mason then pointed to a steep decline on their left. "It came from there!" He commented, so Dipper turned the wheel and made a sharp turn to the decline. The golf cart rattled as they drove down into what was the magical part of the woods into a tunnel. There were strange glowing plants everywhere along with mushrooms and moss.

What they saw shocked both of them. Up ahead in the tunnel was a small cavern of some sort, that served as the gnomes' hideout. Jeff was standing on a rock, giving orders to a crowd of other gnomes around Mabel. "The more you struggle the more awkward this is gonna be for everyone." Jeff said, watching the ordeal go down. He then placed a hand in his face as his comrades weren't doing a very good job in securing their victim. "Just-ha ha. Okay-just, get her arms there Steve."

Jeff was so focused on Mabel that he didn't realize that the boys were driving up right behind him. Mabel was trying to fight off all gnomes grabbing at her. "Let go of me!" She kicked one in the smack away from her, making it fly back a few feet. The gnome stood up before clutching his stomach and then puked out a rainbow.

Understandably, Dipper and Mason were both very confused about this whole thing. "What the hell is going on here?" Dipper exclaimed, parking the golf cart and getting out of it with Mason.

"Are those…gnomes?" Mason asked, narrowing his eyes at the short creatures. One of them ran last then paused to hiss at him, making the boy jump back.

Mabel turned around at the sound of her brothers' voices and called out to them. "Guys, Norman turned out to be a bunch of gnomes! And they're total bastards!" She smacked one away but another pulled her down by her hair from behind. "Hair! Hair!" She whined in pain.

"Gnomes?" Mason said and raised an eyebrow. "Seriously?"

"Man, I was way off." Dipper said. He then pulled the journal out of his vest, and he and Mason started reading from the gnome page. "Gnomes, little men of the Gravity Falls forest. Weaknesses are unknown." They looked up and saw that the gnomes had tied Mabel to the ground.

"Aw come on!" she said, glaring up at the gnomes.

Now furious, Dipper marched up to Jeff and turned him around with one harsh motion, glaring straight into his eyes. "Hey gnome guy, let go of our sister!" Dipper snapped, curling his hands into fists. He was prepared to swing if he had to.

"Or face our wrath!" Mason added, holding up the bat Soos gave them earlier in a threatening manner.

Upon being the two angry humans, Jeff got very nervous and immediately got to explain. "Uh, hey there pals. This is all just a big misunderstanding. Y-your sister isn't in danger, she's just marrying all one-thousand of us and becoming our gnome queen for all eternity!" He then looked over his shoulder at her. "Isn't that right Mabel?"

"No way!" Mabel shot back before a gnome covered her mouth, preventing her from further speaking.

"Give her back right now." Dipper said low and cold as he and his brother raised their weapons.

"You think you can stop us boy?" Jeff said darkly, narrowing his eyes at them. "You have no idea what we're capable of. The gnomes are a powerful race!" As Jeff went on, the Pine boys just looked at each other confusingly. This tiny man didn't really think he could stand a chance against them right?" Do not trifle with the-OW!" Jeff was cut off when Dipper simply whacked him with the shovel.

"Nice one." Mason told Dipper and the two boys ran towards Mabel to rescue her. Mason fought off the gnomes that were surrounding her while Dipper used the shovel to cut the ropes used to tie the girl. With her body now free, Mabel kicked away two gnomes that were approaching and took Dipper's outstretched hand. Then they began running towards the golf cart. "Let's go!" She told Mason and he followed them after knocking away a third gnome.

From the ground, Jeff watched them pile into the vehicle and Dipper started it up. "They're getting away with our queen!" He said and pointed, then picked his ass up off the ground and tried to run after them. "No! No! No! No!"

"Seatbelt." Dipper reminded his siblings. Since there were only two seats, Mabel and Mason had to squeeze into the passenger side together. It wasn't that bad, they were used to sharing things after all, like their crib when they were newborns. Dipper drove in reverse before turning the golf cart around, and then floored it down the tunnel to the exit.

Jeff stood back on the rock and stared at them as they drove away, seething in rage. The triplets may have been bigger and stronger, but they had strength in something more important: numbers. "You messed with the wrong creatures, kids." He stood straight on the stone and shouted out for the whole forest to hear, "Gnomes of the forest…ASSEMBLE!"

From behind mushrooms, plants, and rocks, crawling out and down trees, hundreds of gnomes walked up to Jeff and gathered around him in a big swarm. They began stacking on each other and connecting limbs, building up and up with Jeff at the top. They'll have the same goal in mind. To get revenge.

________________________________________

Meanwhile, the Pines kids were driving swiftly along the path through the forest. Having made it out of the gnomes' hideout mostly unharmed, they were now heading back to the shack. Believing that it was all over, Dipper slowed down the speed at which they were going.

But this made Mabel nervous. She glanced over her shoulder and then back at Dipper. "Why are you going slower?" She asked anxiously. "They could be coming after us!"

Instead of taking what she said seriously, Dipper just chuckled out loud and simply replied, "I wouldn't be worried about it, have you seen their legs?" He then made a running motion with his fingers to poke fun at their height. "Those suckers are tiny." He laughed again.

Suddenly there were multiple thunderous footsteps that shook the whole ground and a shadow covered the golf cart, which made Dipper slam on the brakes and the vehicle came to a stop in the middle of the oath. Then the three kids looked back to see what it was.

And what it was wasn't pretty. The gnomes had made one giant gnome monster made up of quite possibly every single gnome in the entire magic part of the forest. Being the leader of all of them, Jeff was sitting on the top like a king overlooking his people and using two hats as levers.

"Holy crap." Mason whispered with wide eyes.

Seeing his targets below, Jeff gave out commands. "Alright, teamwork guys, like we practiced." The monstrosity of gnomes roared loudly and raised its giant arms, intending to crush the cart and the occupants inside.

"Go, GO!" Mabel exclaimed and Dipper didn't waste a second more. He pulled the clutch and slammed on the gas pedal, making the cart speed forwards just as the monster smashed its hand down on the ground. It hit the spot they were seconds before, and the hand broke apart. But the gnomes instantly screamed back into their positions and gave chase.

The golf cart was now going very fast down the road, driving over rigs and branches, with Dipper making sure to not lose control and crash it but also trying to get ahead of the gnome monster. "Come back with our queen!" Jeff called angrily after them.

"It's getting closer!" Mabel said fearfully, looking over her shoulder to see it chasing the vehicle.

"Dipper what do we do?!" Mason yelled frantically over the golf cart engine and blowing winds from the speed.

Dipper was more focused on driving the fleeing cart from the shadow monster than having a plan. "I don't know!" He shot back due to being under such pressure. "And this is the fastest this shit can go, anymore and we could risk it breaking down!"

Jeff used a switch to propel three gnomes at the cart. They flew in the air before landing on the cover of the golf cart. One began tearing off part of the paper on the cover. The other two hung off the edge of the roof and growled at the kids.

The triplets could only try and defend themselves. Mabel and Mason managed to fight off two of them, by punching them off the roof. The third came from above and jumped on Dipper, attacking his face. Luckily his siblings came to the rescue and repeatedly punched the gnome until it was sent flying off into the bushes on the side of the road. Unfortunately Dipper's hat was taken with it and he was left with a black eye.

"Thanks guys." He rasped as he adjusted his hair.

"Don't mention it." They said at the same time.

Behind them, the gnome monster grabbed a thick tree trunk and ripped the tree straight out of the ground with only its bare hands. It then threw the tree at the golf cart like a football at a rapid speed. The shadow of the tree passed over the golf cart and it crashed on the road a few feet ahead of it. "Look out!" Mabel warned, pointing at the tree. Dipper saw a gap between the tree and the path that poked like it could barely fit the golf cart and accelerated to it. He then turned the wheel as hard as he could towards it and the kids all held each other and yelled, bracing for the worst.

But instead of crashing, the golf cart actually did fit through the hole. Though barely. It swerved sharp and spun around all the way to the Mystery Shack until it came to. Stop by flipping onto its side. The three kids groaned and helped each other pull themselves out of the wreckage.

However when the three of them made it out, the gnome monster approached looking more pissed off then than ever before. While his siblings stepped back in fear, Dipper was desperately looking for anything that could help them get out of this situation. "Stay back man!" He said before spotting the shovel on the ground.

He grabbed it and chucked it at the gnome monster with all the force he had. But it easily caught it mid-air and smashed it right in the ground. The force of the impact made the ground shake again.

The siblings cried and backed away, holding each other. "Where's Grunkle Stan?!" Dipper said.

________________________________________

As it turns out, their uncle was inside the gift shop with three tourists. The window right in front of them gave the perfect view of the carnage going on outside. But apparently Stan was blind because he didn't seem to notice what was going on.

He unveiled a hypnotizing tool of some sort to the group of people. It was a white circle designed in a swirly pattern with a stick and pull string. "Behold, the world's most distracting object!" Stan announced as he pulled on the string. The pattern began moving in a very satisfying way. "Just try to look away from it, you can't!"

The people "oohed" as they watched the pattern spin.

Stan did this as well and a few seconds after he looked like he was in a trance. "I can't even remember what I was talking about."

________________________________________

Back outside, his niece and nephews were very much in real danger. The three walked backwards until their backs hit the wall of the shack, with Dipper taking a protective stance in front of his brother and sister while the gnome monster stood towering above them. Their hearts raced with every second that it stepped closer.

Things were not looking good for them.

"Last chance kids," Jeff said as he looked down at them with a glare. "Mabel, marry us before we do something CRAZY!" He grabbed the hats once again, signaling that he would absolutely follow through on his threat. And the kids knew that whatever would happen if they didn't comply, could possibly result in all three of them getting seriously injured or even killed.

"This is bad, this really bad." Mason whispered in a shaky breath.

Dipper reached into his vest for Journal #3, desperately hoping that anything in it could help.

But then Mabel stepped forward with a determined expression and said seriously, "I have to do it."

Immediately Dipper grabbed her hand and pulled her back in shock. "Mabel, are you crazy?" Mason murmured, looking back and further between her and the monstrosity of gnomes looming over them. "Who knows what they're gonna have you do!"

However Mabel pulled her hands free and said in a strange calmness, "Guys, trust me."

"What?" Her brothers both replied, both of them couldn't believe what she was saying. Was she actually going to go through this? Was she actually going to agree to become their queen? Sure it might have been because she wanted to save them, but there had to be another way.

"Guys," She pleaded, looking at them with desperate eyes that said she needed to do this. "Just this once, trust me."

Dipper and Mason looked at each other for a few months, silently communicating. They then sighed and nodded, before he stepped back from Mabel, allowing her to go through with whatever plan she had in mind.

Before Dipper or Mason could change their mids and pull her back again, Mabel stepped forward with her hands by her side. "Alright Jeff, you win," She said, swallowing her nerves as she stood before the gnome monstrosity, looking up at the tiny man. "I'll do it."

"Hot dog!" Jeff cheered, his attitude doing a complete 180 as a big smile spread on his face. He then began climbing down the monster made of his own people. "Help me down there Jason. Thanks. Andy, left foot, there we go. Watch those fingers Mike." After pushing himself down the leg and out the foot, he casually strolled up to Mabel and presented to her a diamond engagement ring. He pointed at it with a smile. "Eh?"

Mabel looked at something on the bushes over her shoulder before turning back to him, holding out her hand so Jeff could put the ring on her.

Jeff slid the ring onto her finger and did a cheerful dance. "Bada bing, bada bam! Now let's get you back into the forest honey." He said, and began walking back when Mabel put a hand on his shoulder which stopped him.

"May I tell you something, my sweet?" She asked, putting on an innocent face and smile.

Jeff turned to look at her and adjusted his overalls with a smirk and a raised eyebrow. "Oh, and what might that be?"

"Well, you're a pretty smart guy," She started, kneeling down so she could be at eye level with him. "But…"

Mabel then suddenly pulled out the leafblower from out of the bush and glared at the little creature. "You fucked with my family you little bastard!" She growled, then turned on the leafblower.

This surprised not only her brothers, but also Jeff and the other gnomes. "Hey, w-whats's going on?!" Jeff cried and tried to run away, but he wasn't fast enough and half his body ended up being sucked into the leafblower.

"That's for lying to me!" Mabel snapped angrily as she increased the power.

"Ow, my face!" Jeff said in pain as only his face could be seen sticking out of the tube.

"This is for breaking my heart!" She continued, cranking up the power all the way to the max level. Dipper and Mason came up to her sides, watching and getting great satisfaction from seeing the little jerk get what he deserved. Mabel then aimed the leafblower at the monster gnome, making it gasp as it relieved what she was going to do next.

Mabel smiled at her brothers and asked, "you guys wanna do the honors?"

"With pleasure." Mason responded with a big smile.

"On three," Dipper instructed them and each sibling put their hand on the machine. They then began a countdown. "One! Two! Three!" As soon as they got down to one, they put the leafblower in reverse, knocking them backwards into the bushes, a safe landing, while Jeff flew forwards straight at the giant gnome screaming.

Jeff collided right through it and the monstrosity that had been chasing them and made them fear for their lives, exploded in a shower of hundreds of gnomes. "I'LL GET YOU BACK FOR THIS!" Jeff shouted as he was sent all the way back to his part of the forest. And like something out of a cartoon, an explosion sound was heard.

"Who's giving orders? I need orders." One gnome said, sitting on top of a pile of other beat up gnomes.

"My arms are tired." Another one said, saving his arm up and down.

Forced to wave the white flag and surrender, the remaining gnomes quickly ran back into the forest as Dipper threatened them with the leafblower, using it to scare them away. "Does anyone else want some?" He said smugly, crossed his arms while Mabel and Mason continued to smile.

_______________________________________

After a long end to the day of battling wrong conspiracies and tiny evil men kidnap children, the triplets finally were safe and sound. Planning on spending the night reading the rest of that journal and getting much needed rest. They began walking towards the back porch of the shack, however Mabel was going at a slower pace than her brothers.

She felt horrible for how she treated them earlier. All they were doing was looking out for her, telling her to be careful about Norman. They had every right to be suspicious, and looking back on it anyone would be if their sibling was dating someone they just met for a day, especially with Norman's appearance. And she had been so blinded by feeling love for the first time that she gave no mind to the thought that they could be right, and in return she snapped at them.

"Hey guys," She called out to them, making them cause and look back at her. The girl put her hands behind her back and looked at the ground with a guilty expression. "Im sorry for ignoring you. You really were just trying to protect me."

"Aw come Mabel don't be like that, you saved our asses back there." Dipper said, trying to cheer her up.

Mason nodded in agreement. "Yeah, what you did was pretty heroic. If not, who knows what would've happened. You're a hero."

"I guess I'm just sad my boyfriend turned out to be a bunch of gnomes." She said sadly while pulling leaves out of her hair.

"Hey, maybe next time it will be a vampire." Dipper joked and the triplets shared a laugh.

Mabel held out her arms, offering something they had done since they were very little kids. Something that they would do if one needed comfort, if they needed the other's support and love. "Awkward sibling hug?" She asked, looking back up hopeful.

Her others glanced at each other before smiling. "Awkward sibling hug." They said, welcoming it with open arms. The three then hugged each other and patted on the back. "Pat! Pat!"

The three pulled away a few moments later and as Dipper and Mabel began walking away, Mason called them back." Hey guys, check this out." The two turned around to see Mason popping down on the price steps, staring at the sunset above the pines ahead.

It was a very beautiful sunset, much more beautiful than anyone they've seen in California. A glorious mix and hue of orange and purple hung in the sky above. The evening air was warm but not hot, like a perfect spring dusk at a park. The woods were beginning to come alive with sound, circadias were just starting to sing their songs and an owl hooted somewhere in the distance. The Pacific Northwest really was a sight to behold. Dipper and Mabel sat on either side of him.

PLAY MUSIC: EVERGREEN BY RITCHY MITCH AND THE COAL MINERS W/ CAAMP

As they sat there together, there was silence between the three siblings. Mason picked at a thread on his sweater before he asked, "Do you think we're gonna make it though through the summer…beign here? Do you think Grunkle Stan even likes us?"

Mabel shrugged. "With him as our guardian, I'd say we're lucky if we last a week." She said, half joking and half serious.

The three laughed softly. Dipper peered towards the woods. From there he could see hints of fireflies flying around in the bushes. "You know guys, when mom and dad first told us they were sending us here, I thought I would hate it a lot, I thought that maybe we would be broken up. But, it's actually kind of beautiful. Now with this new journal, I think I have a good feeling about this summer." He said, turning to look at them with a smile.

Mason smiled back. "Yeah I get that. But hey, we're not gonna break up. We just defeated a whole gnome army together. As long as we're with each other, it'll be okay. Who knows what's gonna happen. Who knows what's in store for us.."

________________________________________

After watching the sunset together, the Pines kids walked back into the gift shop, looking totally drained of their energy and Dipper closed it with his foot. At the counter, Stan was behind it, counting up all his profits for the day. When he saw his niece and nephews' appearance, he immediately got to cracking a joke.

"Yeesh, you three get hit by a bus or something?" He said, then slammed his hand down on the counter, laughing at his own joke.

But the triplets just ignored him and headed towards the door that led to the living room. Upon seeing this, Stan softened. "Uh…hey!" He called after them. The three kids turned their heads back to him. Stan awkwardly tapped the money in his hand, unsure if how to show his care for them. "Wouldn't ya know, I overstock some inventory, so how about each of you take an item, on the house huh?"

Really?" Mabel and Mason asked.

"What's the catch?" Dipper asked, squinting and crossing his arms. This was suspicious, Stan never showed any form of love to them.

"The catch is to take something before I change my mind." Stan replied putting the money into the register. The kids smiled at each other then ran around the shop, searching for something to choose.

Dipper noticed some hats on a shelf. Since he jad lost his to the gnomes, he could replace it with this one. They were blue and white, with a pine tree on the front. He grabbed one and looked at himself in the mirror. "That'll do the trick." He said, satisfied with his choice.

Mason looked around, unsure of what to pick before he saw a freezer next to the counter. He opened it and grinned at the contents inside of it, then pulled out an ice cream bar. "Ooh I'll take this!" He said eagerly.

At the other end of the gift shop, Mabel was searching through some boxes, and when she peered down into one of them and gasped "And I will have a…GRAPPLING HOOK!" She exclaimed, pulling it out and pointing the weapon at the ceiling.

"Wouldn't you want like…a doll or something?" Stan asked.

Mabel fired the grappling hook at a wooden beam on the ceiling and she was pulled up by it. "Grappling hook!"

"Fair enough."

________________________________________

Later, after washing up and changing into their night wear, and as the triplets were getting ready for bed, Dipper began to write in the journal. His first entry in the new book.

This journal told me there was no one in Gravity Falls I could trust, He looked to the opposite side of the room where Mason was jumping on the bed, eating his frozen treat and giggling. At the front, Mabel was practicing using her grappling hook on her stuffed animal. But when you fight one hundred gnomes with two of your best friends, you realize that these will probably always have your back.

Dipper finished writing his entry and put the journal away. After an intense day In Gravity Falls, it was finally time for bed. He was sure that this journal would lead them onto new adventures. And he couldn't wait. "Hey Mabel, can you get the light?" He asked, laying down in bed.

"I'm on it!" His sister said and aimed the grappling hook straight at the lamp. She then shot it, causing the lamp to go straight out the window.

"It worked!" Mason said and they laughed.

Who knows all the other mysteries are waiting to be unlocked?

Unbeknownst to them, there was one other person that was not going to bed yet.

Downstairs in the gift shop, Stan held a lantern up as he walked to the vending machine. He types in a code into the vending machine's keypad and it swung open, revealing a hidden passage behind it. Stan looked around for a moment, making sure no one was watching, before closing the door behind him.

The lights in the vending machine then went out.

________________________________________

We've reached the first episode and I am so excited to write more. I am planning on doing the whole series , but it will probably take a while considering I have other matters, mostly school, to attend to.

Other than that thank you very much for reading! If you enjoyed, please feel free to Follow or Favorite, or leave a review to let me know how I'm doing. Feedback is much appreciated.