Reality Is Stranger Than Fiction

After Hours (We Are Scientists) (Arc 2: the Arctic)

It took you two days to pack all of your belongings away, storing what you weren't taking in a storage shed in town and putting what you were into suitcases. Stan was easily able to find the three of you a boat, it would be close quarters, but it would be manageable. So, three days after Mabel and Dipper left Gravity Falls, you climb into the driver's seat of Stan's car.

Ford slams the trunk down, causing Stan to grumble from the backseat to not damage the car. Ford dismisses him, sliding into the passenger seat. You adjust the mirrors, giving Ford a shy smile as you put the car into reverse.

"Ready to go, Pines?" you ask, turning to look over your shoulder as you backed up the car out of its parking spot.

Stan gives you a thumbs up and Ford gives you a confident nod as you turn out of the Mystery Shack's parking lot and onto the highway. The boat in question was a leg's journey off, at the Warrenton peer. Something about an internet buying and selling website that Stan had used. You weren't exactly sure, it was rather confusing to you.

Ford turned the radio on, sparking an argument from Stan as he changed the channel. You chuckled as you drove down the road, passing by the "Welcome to Gravity Falls" sign. You'd left early in the morning, per Stan's request, as he didn't want to see Soos' crying face as you drove off. Even though everyone knew that it was only going to be eight months, the entire town was acting as if it would be a lifetime. Part of you enjoyed the appreciation, part of you worried if this was going to be a lifetime for you. Sure you were immortal... but you weren't invincible.

You shoved your dark thoughts down in your chest as the car sped off down the highway. The air in the cabin became more relaxed as the twins settled on a radio station. You drummed your fingers against the steering wheel to the beat of the music, silently cheering when you remembered that you'd brought your guitar along as you caught a glimpse of its case next to Stanley in the back seat.

"So, what do you think we're going to see when we get out there?" you asked, breaking the light air between the three of you.

"Well, I'm still convinced it has to be some sort of leviathan or Kraken, due to the location being directly in the ocean," Ford observes tapping his watch to display the same data you'd been reviewing for the past two days. This was not a new conversation.

"Or it could be the lost city of Atlantis," Stan interjects from the backseat, still clinging to his little fantasy of mermaid babes and gold.

"Stanley, as much as I'd like to believe that, it's not possible. The temperatures simply don't support the existence of merfolk that far -"

"You're forgetting about Selkies," you interrupt, reminding him that Stan could technically be correct.

"You're also ignoring the possibility that it could be a portal to another dimension and we'd all get sucked inside of it," Ford reminds you, tapping the data you'd collected on accident from Weirdmagedon.

"Or it could be Rick," you argue, your tone light and happy. You enjoyed the banter with Ford and Stan over possible theories, even if Stan came up with some... interesting ones.

"Yes, but what would he be doing so far north in our dimension?" Ford ponders, remembering your old friend you'd met while in the Lottocron Nine dimension.

"I'm not sure, but then again, I was never sure what he was doing anywhere," you state, driving the car with one hand as you coast by tree after tree.

"Wait, wait, hold the phone here. You two nerds have to remember I wasn't there. Who's Rick?" Stan asks from the backseat, looking extremely confused in the rear-view mirror.

"Ah, Rick Sanchez. I suppose we can consider him some sort of friend. He was - what did he say, sixty-nine?" you nod your head. "Interesting man. He was travelling the dimensions, voluntarily, rather than trapped."