Sapphire Star

Chapter 3 Bloodcraft

As they approached the shack Mabel's excitement grew exponentially. As we walked up the lawn and into the doorway Soos greeted us. "What's up, dudes?" "Soos!" I said as I flung myself at him in a sweater ensconced bear hug. "I missed you too ham-bone," Soos said. As Dipper entered the doorway after me Soos and Melody were staring at him. "Like dude...did they stretch you out on one of those medieval racks or something?" Soos asked. Everyone laughed. "Something like that," Dipper said with a smirk. 

I proceeded to hug Melody who hugged me back patting me on the head affectionately. Dipper had gotten taller, and so had I, but I was still short compared to him. As I smiled at her a tear came to her eye. "You dears have grown so much. We missed you both," Melody said. "We missed you too Melody," I said with a slight sniff.

Grunkle Stan walked in. "We are in here not even a minute and everyone is putting on the waterworks," he said. "We missed you too Grunkle Stan," I said as I turned around hugged him, and cried some more. "I missed you too pumpkin...I missed you too," Grunkle Stan said softly patting my back. Then he breathed in and began clearing his throat, I'm just gonna go make everyone some hot chocolates in the kitchen he said making a hasty retreat. Grunkle Ford, who had just came up the stairs, grinned at Stanley as he passed. I barely heard Grunkle Stan growl, "Not a word sixer!" to Grunkle Ford.

I turned back to see Dipper casually talking with Wendy and Soos. Melody headed off to help Grunkle Stan with the hot chocolates. Mabel basked in the glow of the culmination of everything she has hoped for and dreamed of all school year. Family and dear friends reunited in affection and camaraderie. She closed her eyes and breathed in the summer, this moment. It was hard to imagine being happier than this.

Later that evening Mabel followed Dipper upstairs to their room in the apex of the shack. Dipper stepped up to the door. Mabel could see he was just as excited as she was. The door opened and revealed the room. It was more or less how they found it last. The moonlight was streaming in through the triangle window mirroring the shape of the apex room. Dipper's bed neatly made to the left in blue, and mine not so neatly made in pink to the right. "All that time waiting..." Dipper said in disbelief. I walked up behind him and hugged him, which was proving more challenging as of late given our height disparity. "We're home," I said holding on tight smiling.

"So I got a surprise for you," Dipper said cryptically. "Do tell oh great wizard of obscurity," I teased him bowing in mock revere. Instead of telling me, he grabbed one of his two bags, the one that looked like it weighed ninety-five pounds, and started digging in it. And with all the huzzah of a show announcer presenting the prizes, he brought forth two gaming controllers. "Guess who remembered to bring Bloodcraft!?" Dipper was grinning from ear to ear. "Guess who forgot we have no Wi-Fi out here?" I chuckled. "Way ahead of you bro," Dipper said. "Grunkle ford told me he had a satellite put in orbit last year for research, but apparently it communicates via other satellite networks in a transponder array to redirect communications when it's out of our orbital window."

I acted like I was trying to dig something out of her ears. "Ok, Ok," dipper said throwing his arms up in exasperation. "We have internet thanks to Grunkle Ford." I grinned in amusement. Dipper plugged the console into the wall. He booted it up and began to input the Wi-Fi credentials. Meanwhile, she pulled out her phone and did likewise. "Who has a twenty-three character password for their Wi-Fi?!" I asked incredulously. "Why does it have to be so complicated and random? I don't even know what half these symbols are called?!"

"Mabel," Dipper said putting on a tone that insinuated just how obvious he thought what he was about to say next was. "You realize that rainbow tables exist for caching the output of cryptographic hash functions of the most common passwords used?! A brute-force attack would easily topple such short and simple phrases rapidly." I stood there stunned for several seconds not sure how to respond. Trying to recover he shot back. "I'm just saying it's got to be asymmetrical and complex," Dipper said defensively. "Your asymmetrical and complex," I teased with a smile as he handed me a controller smiling back.