Back To Gravity Falls: Beware the Beast (Multiverse Crossover)

Research, Journals, and Creatures-- Oh My!

And so it goes. The quiet and conspiratory tones between the four as they sat around the living room. Music a steady drone in the background, as they discussed their plan of action. Near the end of this meeting, as Dipper and Ford had sharp words back at forth at the dangers involved; Dipper with not wanting to involve too many others, and Ford fearing that they were all too young to take the Beast on alone.

Norman received a text from Mabel alerting him something along the lines of how dangerous it is for them to be out alone, even in daylight, so on and so forth. Norman assured her they were safe and would be back in an hour or so. She seemed placated some but not entirely unworried, her choice of words making it obvious even over text. Unsurprising, since the vision of Hyle's warnings were fresh in all their minds. He added that they dropped by to see Stan and Ford, in hopes it would reassure her, despite already sitting in their living room.

Judging by the string of emojis, he figured she was relieved at least to some degree. The faces ranging from skeptical to exasperated, with a few hourglasses in an attempt to emphasize the lack of time they likely had to deal with this problem. He had to give her credit for how well she could express herself just with a string of symbols and facial expressions. He barely followed the conversation between Dipper and his Gruncles, vague references to certain events he wasn't privy to being mentioned on occassion.

He stood up, his knees snapping a bit in protest. The couch was slow to rise from where he had sat, clearly the cause of the difficulty he had getting off the couch. The movement caused Dipper to look at him in understanding.

"Right, well-" Dipper interrupted, standing with some difficulty himself. He glanced at the clock and frowned, he hadn't planned taking this long here. "Norm and I gotta go. Whether or not you agree with us doing this, we're already involved. It's your choice if you want to help us or hinder us. Let us know if you think of anything."

"Sure, kid." Stan interrupted Ford with a sour look. "We'll let you know. We're proud of you, though my brother is too worried about your safety to admit it. I know when things were bad before, I wasn't exactly there when you needed me. I was too preoccupied with the Shack..." His voice tugged a little but he cleared his throat and the weakness in his voice was gone. "Anyway, you and your sister were able to snuff Bill Cipher, this will be a cake walk for you kids. We believe in you, all of you."

Dipper hugged them both, Norman waving awkwardly before whispering so only the Gruncles could hear as Dipper walked ahead to the porch, "I don't have time to explain, but do you two know an old man who may have died in town?" Norman asked, briefly describing the spirit he saw leaving the forest property.

The two shared a look, then Stan shrugged while Ford shook his head. Norman, too distracted by Dipper calling for him, did not question the odd look that passed between them. When he caught up to Dipper, they spoke small-talk, commenting on the passing houses or buildings. Dipper paused mid-sentence to thank Norman for coming along, to admit how relieved he felt to see his Gruncles again and speak to them (relatively) alone. Norman shrugged, as though it was no big deal. Dipper took a deep breath through his nose, pointing to the Shack.

"Might be best if I run in and run out, what with the situation and all." Dipper muttered, still a little bitter at how Soos and Melody were acting. Just because he understood, doesn't mean it was fair, or that he had to like it.

Norman put a hand on his shoulder and squeezed gently, "I'll be here when you get back."

"Right," Dipper nodded, scurrying inside without knocking.

A few minutes passed and as Norman began to feel odd standing less than 20 feet away from the Mystery Shack just staring off intently into the distance, so he sat down on the grass and leaned back on his hands until eventually he laid flat on the ground to watch the clouds. He watched them mindlessly for what could have been minutes or an hour before Dipper's face appeared above his with an amused expression masked by the shadow he was making.

"I wasn't gone that long, was I?" He joked.

"Couldn't say," Norman admitted. "I tuned out. Did you get the journals?"

"Yeah," he nodded, "Guess they weren't home. It's bad of them to leave the doors unlocked, but they could just be avoiding me. It's an awkward situation."

"Sure. Are you ready to start heading back, then?" Norman looked at Dipper with a sense of curiosity when he noticed a flash of something cross his face.

Dipper reached out a hand wordlessly and helped Norman up who absently dusted the grass from his clothes as they began the long trek back. The silence was not awkward, but not without weight, Dipper felt the need to talk less because he got the sense if he talked too much now it would just come out as small talk. He didn't want to have to revert to that, he and Norman were a bit closer than lighthanded small talk, after all.

"So, what is in the journals? You didn't exactly elaborate." Norman asked, his curiosity growing. "I mean, this isn't exactly the best time to take a field trip, you know."

"There's something in here that can help, I'm sure of it. But once I find out which ones are around the time I was here in Gravity Falls before, there may be bits of info from the old journals Ford wrote in there. He travelled dimensions, timelines, and encountered creatures not even mentioned in worldwide folklore they're so obscure."

Dipper stopped walking, turning to face Norman as a car drove past them on the street, causing them to move further in on the sidewalk. A brisk wind began to kick up, giving them a bit of a chill.

"I just need to try, okay? I feel guilty enough not being around my Gruncles and old friends here when I had every opprotunity to come back. Now this whole mess, it kinda feels like my fault, even though I know it isn't."

Norman nodded, "Come on. They're waiting on us. We'll get through this, somehow."

...

They arrived at the inn in silence, the dark of night nearly at their doorstop. They walked in to the room in complete disarray. Gregg asleep on the floor next to Wirt who is scrunching his face in displeasure at a laptop. Coraline staring at her tarot cards with a blank look, Wybie with a few books open around him looking between them, and Mabel pushing the book against her face in hopes of absorbing the information by osmosis.

"We're back," the boys announced, met with a collection of groaned hellos. "Sorry we took so long... we went by to see Stan and Ford, plus we ran into Gideon."

Mabel inhaled sharply involuntarily at the sound of his name, they hadn't really spoke it aloud in a long time. It was almost like a curse when spoke aloud to the twins, and here Dipper said it without hesitation (even if a little disgusted).

"Well, the online searching has lead me to nearly every D&D wiki, creepypasta, or fictional character with fur, sharp teeth, and a thirst for blood but none of them seem like our Beast unless I completely missed something." Wirt supplied.

"I'm not getting anything remarkable from the cards," Coraline admitted, "aside from a new appreciation for the handpainted artwork on the cards."

"All I have is a headache," Mabel whined, "I'm gonna need reading glasses after all this. I feel like my eyes aged 50 years."

"Well, I have it narrowed down to at least 7 creatures. Good news is that cross-referencing these will narrow it down further. Bad news, that's still a lot more time we would be devoting to figuring out what this thing is and not getting rid of it." Wybie leaned back, popping his knuckles.

"Well, what are they? I can check my journals and see if anything lines up." Dipper pulled off his bag excitedly, sitting on the floor and spreading them out in front of him.

Wybie sighed, looking at a piece of paper where he wrote names, book titles, and page numbers down. "The ones that seemed most likely were: werewolf, amarok, chupacabra, fenrir, kludde, nandi bear, and skinwalkers. I mean there could be even more not in these books."

"A lot of those don't sound native to the United States." Mabel sighed, "But who's to say whether they travel for food or not. This sucks."

"No kidding," Wirt muttered, "Norman, you and Dipper keep looking, I think the rest of us all need a break from this madness. Come help yourself to dinner in a little while."

He stood up slowly and picked up Gregg, taking him to bed while the others went to the kitchen. Dipper and Norman shared a look before splitting the stack of journals in half and beginning to read. It was going to be a long night. They just hoped there wouldn't be any more dead bodies while they tried to find the solution.