Unique (3/3)

05: relies on our own memories

05
Pacifica

Staring at the phone screen only did so much for them. One part of Pacifica's brain was trying to figure out what the hell Dipper actually sent to Gideon; if it was truly a mistake, if it was in a different language, if it was a code of sorts, or just a way to mess with Gideon.

The other part was hurting itself trying to figure out why Dipper would send it to Gideon and not her; did Dipper think that Gideon was more trustful than she was? He texted him two days after he last texted her, why had he done that?

Pacifica tried not to take it super personal as she took one more glance the the strange and cryptic text message.

"What the hell does that mean?" Mabel frowned and pulled Gideon's phone closer to her face.

"That's why I thought it was a mistake." Gideon admitted. "Either he was drunk and tried to pour out a coherent message, or he sent it to the wrong person."

"Well, this looks too realistic to be a coincidence." Pacifica pulled the phone back to her, staring endlessly at the message on the screen. Already, she had a few theories in the back of her head just waiting to be discussed.

"I'll say." Mabel muttered. "It isn't just a bunch of random letters. Nothing with my brother is ever that simple. Nor is anything a coincidence when he's involved."

Gideon looked at Pacifica, eyes holding a tad bit of concern. "You okay, Paz? You just look a little—"

"I'm fine." She interrupted. There was no reason to explain that Pacifica felt hurt over such a stupid little thing. It was entirely irrational and no doubt the rest of them would feel the same.

"Right." Gideon mumbled, turning away from her. "Does anyone have any idea what this really says?"

Both Pacifica and Mabel shrugged.

"No doubt that it's a code." Gideon went on, peering down at his phone. "But what kind of code, and what does it actually mean?"

"Snafu."

The three of them looked over to where Scarlett sat, eyes staring right ahead as if nothing was amiss.

"Bless you?" Gideon wrinkled his nose.

"No, genius." Scarlett rolled her eyes and snatched the phone up from the table, startling everyone with her drastic movements. Pointing a black manicured nail at the first word in the text message, she reiterated. "Snafu. It's an acronym."

"What, really?" Pacifica stared at the word for a little longer.

"What does it mean, Scarlett?" Mabel leaned in a little closer.

"Well, for starters, that's how you know that Dipper actually sent that message and that he truly meant it." Scarlett continued.

"How does that help anything?" Pacifica demanded.

"Well, back when the two of us were a little more. . .close, we had ways of letting the other know how our situations were going. It taught him how to let me know when he was feeling out of it, super stressed or frustrated. In turn, I used Fubar." Scarlett explained, and Pacifica half expected her to grin at her in attempts to make her feel worse, but she just had a small, genuine smile on her face. Like she was remembering a pleasant memory.

Great. First of all, Dipper sent a coded message to Gideon over her. Second of all, he started the message off with another secret code that only Scarlett would know. What the hell was actually going on anymore? Did he not trust her? Or did he think Pacifica couldn't help him?