Pointdexter: A Swooning Over Stan-fiction

Chapter Twelve

After the expedition to find Mothman, Alice made sure to accompany Ford on a few other missions, so to speak. Examining various birds of the forest, including the questionable Stomach-Faced Duck, who had stolen her sandwich and run, Ford in hot pursuit. While he couldn't find what evidence he needed and Alice had no idea how to add to the thesis (Something to do with their digestive systems), both had decided that the Stomach-Faced Duck flock was... Questionable. Not as questionable as the question Quail, which he had shown her from a journal page, but still questionable.

Her adventures with Ford had been more enjoyable than she'd expected, and Alice couldn't help but hope she'd experience another one.

She stepped through the living room, lost in her notes about Question Quails and Ford's journal pages, and narrowly avoided slipping on a sheet of graph paper.

"Agh! Don't look!!" Dipper cried out, reaching out and snagging the paper before Alice could slip. He glanced up, and let out a sudden sigh of relief. "Oh- It's you."

"That's quite the greeting," Alice said with a hesitant laugh, glancing over the papers and a book, "D, D& More D: Officially Licensed Campaign Journal. Her gaze flickered over the array of multicolored dice, the half-dozen chewed pencils scattered across the floor, and the floor almost entirely covered in graph paper.

"Uh, hi?" Dipper corrected himself, a sudden bead of sweat rolling down his face. "Did you need something? I know it's kinda messy, I should probably clean that up."

"I can go," Alice offered, a small smile crossing her face. "You look busy."

She knelt, picking up a piece of paper, when she started looking at what was on it. A fantasy map, some floor plans, and countless scribbled notes and calculations in the margins.

"Are you planning something?" She asked, passing the paper to him, startling the boy from his planning.

"Oh- right! No big deal, it's just this great pen-and-paper roleplay game called Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons- DD&DM for short," Dipper explained. It was a big deal to him. "It's about fantasy worlds and statistics and swords and- Well, it's hard to explain but it's super fun. I'm playing it with Grunkle Ford today, so I'm just putting down the final touches on my dungeon. He's gonna be so stumped."

"Stumped, you say?" Ford's voice suddenly asked from behind Alice, and she nearly jumped at the start. She whipped around, finding Ford drying his hands on his trenchcoat. "Perfect timing, Dipper, I just managed to get the paint off my hands."

"From what?" Alice and Dipper chimed at the same time, giving each other worried looks.

"Oh, one of the gnomes came by and decided he's graffiti the side of the house," Ford said with a roll of his eyes. "Something about his rapper persona."

"Yeesh," Dipper dipper said, his face wrinkling.

"Yes, I don't think J-Gnomezy is going anywhere in the music business," Ford said with a shake of his head, his hand fluttering to his face and adjusting his glasses. "In any event, I see you've been hard at work. Are you ready for our game?"

"Yes!" Dipper said with a grin, shooting from his seat. "And oh! Alice- I can take those now, thanks for the help."

"No problem," Alice smiled, handing the papers back to the boy and noticing the stats for something called a "Knock-Knock Skull". Ford seemed to notice she'd been standing there for the first time since he entered the room.

"Alice," Ford greeted her with a smile. "Glad to see you weren't too shaken up by our adventure yesterday."

"How could I be?" She asked, hoisting her notes under her arm. "I made it back in one piece."