Forest of Riddles (Reverse Falls, S1)

FF: Part One

The day after Pacifica Pines woke up sick, Dipper Gleeful forgot to wear his amulet to breakfast.

He hadn't realized it until he was, well, seated at the breakfast table, in the middle of eating breakfast. With his parents sitting across from him. After his father had paused, looked at Dipper, and asked him where his amulet was.

Dipper paused as well, his fork halfway to his mouth and frozen in midair. "My what?" he said, hoping he had very much just misheard his father.

But Sheldon Gleeful merely put his silverware on the table with a gentle clatter and a cough and then resumed his conversation. "Your amulet, Mason," he said. "Where is it?"

With a sinking heart, Dipper glanced down at the shirt collar peeking over his orange sweater.

Shoot.

He'd forgotten to wear his amulet.

To avoid answering, he shoved a forkful of eggs into his mouth.

"I'm sure it slipped his mind, dear," Serena Gleeful said, taking a sip of something orange from a fancy glass.

Sheldon frowned. "Mason, I thought I told you to wear it."

Dipper managed to swallow his eggs. "I'm not in public and it's only breakfast -"

"When I tell you to do something, I expect it to be done," Sheldon said sharply. "And that goes for your amulet. I highly expect you to wear it at all times."

"But, Father -"

"Do you see your sister without her amulet at all? When she was younger she'd wear it to bed. Isn't that right, Serena?"

Serena added a "Mmhm" to the conversation before going back to her breakfast.

Dipper didn't answer his father - in truth, Dipper had seen Mabel without her amulet. For a good couple of days now, in fact. She hadn't had her amulet for nearly five days, but he didn't think his parents were that on top of things.

Thankfully, it seemed like Sheldon was only trying to make a point and didn't expect his son to answer him, and he went on. "Now, Mason, I expect to see you wearing it after lunch. Is that understood?"

Dipper tried reasoning one last time. "Yes, but I almost never wear my amulet at breakfast -"

"Mason, your sister is back and, on top of that, doing her shows along with you. Business must be slow, because I haven't gotten a single report on its popularity for days." Sheldon picked up his fork and began to neatly push eggs onto it with his knife. "Would you happen to know why that is?"

Shoot.

A good minute or two passed before Sheldon gave Dipper a sharp look as a warning.

Dipper shoved his breakfast around his plate. "I closed it down," he mumbled very quietly.

Unfortunately, it wasn't quiet enough, because Sheldon stopped pushing eggs onto his fork and glared at Dipper immensely. "Closed it down?"

"You closed down the Tent?" Serena gave her son a surprised look.

"She wasn't using her amulet correctly -" Dipper quickly tried to explain.

"How does her amulet tie into this?" Sheldon narrowed his eyes.

Dipper's hands gripped his fork tightly as a few seconds of silence sped by. Then, also not as quietly as he would've liked, he muttered, "I took her amulet away."

"You took it away?" his parents said in unison. Dipper shrunk into his chair.

"How was she using her amulet?" Serena asked.

"She was going to, I dunno, hurt someone over a guy -" An annoyingly hyper guy, Dipper thought scornfully, but he didn't add that. "But she's not supposed to hurt people, right?"

"We told her not to." Serena looked reproachful as she shook her head.

At least his mother had sense in her. His father, however, looked mad.

"You took her amulet away and shut the Tent down?" Sheldon said, his voice dangerously low.

Dipper played with the food on his plate. "Yes," he said quietly, feeling very small.

Silence reigned in the room, so thick with tension that even a knife wouldn't have been able to cut it. Dipper could nearly see the gears working in his father's head. Dipper himself just stared at his plate with no interest on the plate at all.

Then, finally, Sheldon spoke. "You say Mabel wasn't using her amulet correctly?"

Dipper nodded.

"I'll give you a compromise. You need to give your sister her amulet back and open the Tent of Telepathy again, but not until April first or before that. And I expect you to wear your amulet at all times, starting at lunch."

Another nod.

"Good." Sheldon picked up his silverware again and started cutting a piece of his breakfast ham. He paused again, nodded to himself, and added, "Your mother and I have something that might interest you."

Dipper glanced at his father.

Sheldon reached for a newspaper that lay bundled up beside his plate and unfurled it, flipping through the pages until he was satisfied. Then he handed Dipper the newspaper.

Dipper reluctantly took the newspaper and read the article on that particular page.

Gleeful Family may be a SCAM, the page read. Was the Town founded by Someone Else?

He stared at the article headline in shock. The nerve of whoever had written this article - it had been marked anonymous - to write this sham! Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed Sheldon looking at him intently.

"The townspeople have been writing some rather . . . false accusations about us," Sheldon said. "Serena and I would like you to find out what's behind these accusations. Investigate it. Think of it as an adventure."

It wasn't so much an adventure as it was more of an errand, but slowly - though he hated that he was - Dipper was getting interested.

"But," Sheldon continued. Oh, Dipper thought. He wasn't done. "There isn't very much information on what's fact and what's fiction. I expect you to find out as much as you can. You are to present your findings to me in exactly a week from today."

So Dipper didn't have a terrible time crunch on his hands. Seemed manageable.

"It would be wise to start investigating after lunch," Sheldon said. "And you will take your sister. Understood?"

Mabel had to come along? She'd take some convincing. Nevertheless, Dipper nodded. "Yes, Father."

The rest of the meal was eaten in silence.

~

Dipper spent the rest of his morning in his bedroom, not sharing so much of a glance at the folded newspaper on his desk. This adventure seemed relatively easy - the only wrench in the adventure was his twin sister, who probably wouldn't want to come.

She'd be happy that she'd get her amulet back soon, anyway.

The morning came and went, speeding by too soon for Dipper's liking. Then it was lunchtime, and he found himself eating at the same table as he had just hours earlier - except this time with his amulet tied securely under his shirt collar. Sheldon noticed Dipper's amulet and merely nodded his approval.

As soon as lunch ended, however, Dipper rushed out of the mansion as quickly as he could.

The faster he solved this case, the better.