Return of Cipher (Hatters!AU: Return to the Falls)

Chapter I: Returning to Gravity Falls

Author's Notes:

Since I changed the whole storyline for RttF, I decided I'd write the intro bc why not?

I'm also writing this in first person, since I need to work with first person more often and also because I wrote the first episode of Devil's Luck in that style lol

7/3/23 UPDATE: I had to re-copy all the chapters to documents bc I made minor edits/fixes while in treatment so this may take a while to post lol.

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Chapter Started: 1/20/23

Chapter Finished: 1/20/23 (YESSS ONE DAY QUEEN)

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July 2021

Gravity Falls, Oregon

Dipper

It hadn't been a long time since we had been in Gravity Falls. We used to visit every year, ever since that fateful summer in 2012 where we had been shipped there to spend time with our great uncle (or "Grunkle", as my twin dubbed him), Stanley Pines. He ran a tourist attraction called the Mystery Shack, where he would invite unsuspecting morons to come and buy his fake supernatural souvenirs. But this wasn't the ordinary trip to my uncle's weird tourist trap, it was a mystery-solving, gnome-wrangling, demon-defeating adventure.

Gravity Falls was in Oregon, which was famous for Portland's general weirdness, and we expected this to be nothing more than just the average Portland tourist trap with fake gore and wax models of mythical beings. Unfortunately for us, this was far from the case. We faced monsters of all kinds, saved our uncle's twin from an alternate dimension, and stopped the apocalypse, all in one summer. That was about as exciting as things got, since our visits after that summer weren't nearly as hair-raising, but it was still nice to enjoy time with our Grunkles and do research on the various beings in the forest. But you know what they all say: "all good things come to an end".

It was nine years after that summer that our great-uncles passed away, one dying of a heart attack and the other of... a heart attack. Yeah, I know, it's bizarre how they both died in the same way. Even my twin sister, Mabel, was surprised (she thinks it's some kind of "twin curse"). They both died on the first day of July, and what better way to start our summer than going to our Grunkles' funerals?

That was sarcasm, by the way.

We inherited the Mystery Shack following their deaths, and while I had suggested to sell it, Mabel used her puppy eyes to convince me not to for the sake of the memories. And with that, we both dropped all our college courses and enrolled in a community college in Gravity Falls, mentally preparing ourselves for both the transition and the funeral. So here we are now, on an excursion through an Oregon forest while listening to some generic K-pop music Mabel happened to have on her travel playlist. As I drove, Mabel sang along to the music and danced in her seat, her glittery shooting star earrings jingling and bouncing as she moved her head back and forth. She waved her fingers around, as if she was the conductor of the electronic orchestra that constructed the song. It was odd to me that her mood was so cheery, especially in our current situation, and I finally decided to ask her about it three hours into the drive.

"You're in a good mood," I said, looking at her.

Mabel suddenly stopped dancing and looked at me. "Well, K-pop always cheers me up, so I decided I'd play some to avoid focusing on all the sad stuff! It just gets me in a super bouncy mood, y'know?"

I nodded. "I guess I understand that. I mean, I'd rather see you happy and dancing to some TWICE than sobbing during the whole drive."

Mabel's smile dropped to an annoyed pout. "This is BLACKPINK, you uncultured—"