*IF YOU ARE READING THIS IN THE FUTURE THIS CHAPTER HAS BEEN POLISHED/UPDATED!!*
Also, the new story cover! I didn't have a proper one for the longest time and so I thought, okay, I actually need to make one, and I'm very happy with how it turned out :D
Also, just like Mabel in the original show, Mason's outfits will change from time to time, not just his his sweaters.
Episode 2 is finally out! I hope you enjoy it! In this version, Mason stays behind with Stan, and we get some bonding between the two that I hope you like.
GXQM PXXD: KXMNKG MH UNMM BLETGW.
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For the past three days, Dipper woke up feeling like he had aged forty years in one night. His whole body ached and screamed for more rest, but he always woke up at the crack of dawn. Normally he wouldn't know why he was hurting so bad, but he guessed it might've had to do with fighting a giant monstrosity made up entirely of gnomes. Hard to believe right? Well, you just had to be there.
Groaning and rolling over in bed, he blinked himself fully awake. The dawn light was spilling into the room through the window, and he was still adjusting to waking up in a wooden space instead of his regular bedroom at home. He then glanced at his brother's bed across from his, and found it empty. The same was for his sister's. So he assumed that they were already downstairs eating breakfast.
He pushed himself out of bed and trudged downstairs out of the attic. Things were actually peaceful at this time in the shack. It was quiet, and he always liked that. When he made it to the kitchen, he found Mabel at the table with a plate that had pancakes stacked on it. She already helped herself to a few of them, and probably used half the bottle in drenching them, like she and Mason always did whenever they had pancakes.
At the other end of the dining room/kitchen, Mason was rummaging through the cabinets, apparently searching for something. For today's outfit he was wearing a navy blue short sleeve shirt with a red collar with gray sleeves and a white stripe running down them, paired with short dark blue jean shorts, along with hisbusual socks and sneakers. Next to him, the sink was cluttered with dishes he and Mabel used to make their breakfast.
"Hey Dip," Mabel greeted him with a smile and a wave then gestured to the plate of pancakes. "We made some flying flapjacks. Although with Grunkle Stan's limited ingredients don't blame us if you get food poisoning."
Dipper rolled his eyes but smiled and shook his head as he took his usual spot at the table. He saw that the morning paper was sitting on the table so he snatched it up and began reading it while helping himself to two pancakes. He looked around for a bottle of syrup, but it appeared to be missing and he frowned. No way they already used all of it up.
That was when Mason retired from his search, coming back to the table with two bottles of syrup he found and a grin that said he was probably going to do something he thought was funny with it. "Hey guys, check out what I found!" He said, plopping the two bottles on the table. "Mountie Man and Sir Syrup, at your service."
Mabel took one of the bottles and grinned. "Two bottles, you know this means, right?" She asked mischievously, passing the bottle over to Dipper.
"Syrup race!" The three kids chimed in unison.
The syrup race was a competition that took place every time there they had pancakes, no matter the time, date or location. (Much to their parents' disapproval.) Starting when they were younger, it was a fun and wholesome game where two of the siblings would hold the bottle above their heads, causing the syrup to slowly drip down into their mouths. The first person to accomplish this wins, while the third served as referee.
"Are you ready for the ultimate challenge?" Mabel announced in a commentator's voice as her brothers were the ones going head-to-head.
"I'm always ready!" Dipper replied, holding up the Mountie Man bottle.
"And…go!"
The silly game had begun, and the two boys flipped the bottles upside down over their heads, holding out their tongues so the syrup would land on it. Slowly but surely the syrup began to go down while Mabel cheered them on. "Go! Go!"
"Go Mountie Man!"
"Go Sir Syrup!" Mason was close to winning, so he smacked the bottle on the bottom, causing the syrup to fall into his mouth quicker. But there was an unforeseen consequence to this and he began coughing. "I won!" The boy said between coughs, hitting his chest to make them stop
He and Mabel high-fived to celebrate his victory while Dipper rolled eyes and picked up the magazine on the table. He flipped the page and then something on it caught his attention." Whoa, no way. Hey guys, check this out."
Dipper turned the newspaper around to show his siblings what he was looking at. One of the pages was displaying a pink hamster ball that advertised itself to be able to fit a whole human inside. It immediately caught his sister's attention and she gasped.
"A human sized hamster ball? Well I don't know about you guys, but I'm definitely human sized!' She said with a huge grin.
"We could do human bowling!" Mason added enthusiastically before glancing back to the page. "How much is it?"
"Five hundred dollars?" Mabel exclaimed, gawking at the price before sinking down in her chair with her arms crossed. Having a hamster ball she could actually go inside was like she was a hamster herself, was a dream she had since she was five. "This economy sucks." She grumbled.
Hearing this, Dipper pointed to the page that was next to the one with the hamster ball. "No no, I was actually talking about this." He corrected, showing them. It was another advertisement, but this one was far more up Dipper's alley than a toy. It presented a guy with a camera and an image of a furry creature next to it. The title read, Monster Photo Contest. The winner would get FIFTEEN HUNDRED DOLLARS!
"One thousand dollars? You could buy the whole world with that!" Mason exclaimed with wide eyes.
"Ayway," Dipper said, getting their attention back to the topic at hand. "That's not what I was talking about. I was talking about this monster hunting contest
Mabel took a look at the photo of the creature on the page. "That looks totally fake. We see real AND weirder stuff than that every day." She said.
"Exactly," Dipper agreed, nodding his head. "Like those gnomes that attacked us a few days ago. Hey, we didn't happen to get any photos of them did we? Maybe we could submit them." He asked, hoping they did and that they could win the prize money using the little devils.
But his hope was short lived when Mabel shook her head. "Nope. Just bad memories." She then pulled out a little white hair from her pocket. "And this beard hair."
Her brothers recoiled in disgust at the sight, as if they needed any more reasons to remember them. Lately the tiny bastards had been showing up a lot around the shack, stalking them like the creeps they were. "Why the heck would you save that?" Mason asked, disturbed.
His sister just shrugged and smiled.
Just then, their uncle walked into the kitchen, having just woken up. He was still in his night wear, a plain white tank top and hair boxers, along with a gold chain around his neck, and carrying a newspaper in one hand. He slapped the top of the doorframe when he came in. "Good morning knuckleheads, you three know what day it is?" He greeted and asked with a suspiciously excited grin.
"Uh..happy anniversary?" Dipper guessed
"Tuesday?" Mason added.
Mabel thought of her own answer and declared, "Mazel Tov!"
All of their answers were wrong. Stan whacked the two boys on the back of the head with his newspaper. "It's family fun day, genius." He said before turning to the fridge and opening the door. Inside, he found a carton of milk and sniffed it. "We're cutting off work to have one of those…'bonding' type deals."
One would question why Stan Pine of all people would want to bond with anyone. But since overhearing the kids debating on running away when they first arrived, he's been genuinely trying to get them to like him more.
This made Dipper nervous. "Grunkle Stan, is this gonna be anything like our last family bonding day?" He asked as he adjusted his hat on his head.
"Yeah, maybe we should like, just stay home today." Mabel added.
On the last family bonding day, Stan had the kids make him a whole bunch of counterfeit money, painting on paper and then hanging them up afterwards. Yup. Who wouldn't want to send their kids to this guy? However this only resulted in the family getting arrested and booked.
"The county jail was so cold." Mason whispered and shuddered.
But Stan was adamant about today's activities. "Aw come on," he protested as he walked behind the boys and placed his hands around the kids. "Look, I know I haven't been the best summer caretaker, but I promise today we're gonna have some real family fun." He said, trying to sound promising and added, "Now who wants to put on some blindfold and get into my car?"
"Yes!" Mabel and Mason cheered and threw their arms up.
Dipper was much more concerned and said, "Wait what?"
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PLAY MUSIC: GRAVITY FALLS THEME SONG
A time-lapse of the waterfall and a lumberjack statue.
The scene changes to the interior of a bus. The triplets are in one seat asleep as the bus drives on a long stretch of road leading into the town, running beside it are telephone poles and the sky is clouding and gray, adding a mystical feel. A bus carrying our main characters drives down the road and then out of frame. A second later, a Bigfoot looking creature runs across the road to the trees on the other side. The camera pans back just enough to show a yellow sign on one of the trees with an image of the same creature on it.
The scene changes again to the triplets standing outside of the Mystery Shack, looking at it in wonder and confusion. Then, there is a puff of smoke behind them and Stan appears.
Dipper
He is flipping through the journal in the woods, and studying a symbol in a tree, not noticing a singular and familiar eye staring at him through the dark trees.
Mabel
She is seen flirting with a boy. After a bit, the boy takes off his jacket, revealing him to be the gnomes again. Mabel pulls out her grappling hook and fights them off.
Mason
The boy is enthusiastically jumping up and down on his bed in the attic bedroom, with a pig in his arms and a big grin.
Stan
When a tourist is turned around looking at a shirt, Stan takes the opportunity to steal money out of the man's wallet.
Soos
He is eating a chocolate bar and trying to complete a task of fixing a pipe under the sink. The pipe suddenly bursts, spraying water everywhere and all over him.
Wendy
She is seen cutting down a tree with her family. They manage to succeed but the tree falls down, nearly missing their house. Wendy shakes her head.
Cut to the Mystery Shack crew camping out in the middle of the woods. Stan is telling them a story about a monster in the woods. The campfire gives off enough light for us to make out a creature behind them.
Then we cut to a small camp lake at sunset. There is only one wooden pier with several canoes tied to it. Towards the treeline shore of the lake, there are children playing in the water, splashing each other and jumping into the water off the pier. However further down, a hump appears out of the water, and the faint outline of flippers can be seen under the waves, then the hump disappears under the water leaving behind only ripples. It goes unnoticed by the children.
Another cut shows Mystery Shack property at night. Cicadas and crickets are singing, there is a nice cool breeze, and all is calm and peaceful. The top window at the front of the shack is lit up. Then a low growl echoes through the air. There is something in the woods. An owl hoots somewhere in the dark trees.
Then, the three Pines kids are in their attic bedroom laying around, when they and objects around them mysteriously begin to float in the air. Dipper is the only one to notice it.
The scene cuts to a bulletin board with pictures of Stan over the years. The board is labeled with "Can't be trusted" and "Who is he"
Cut to the title screen.
THEME SONG ENDS
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A few minutes later they were all in Stan's car driving down the road to an unknown destination. Just like Stan said, the kids were wearing blindfolds as they sat in the back seat of their uncle's car. However Stan was not the best driver, and kept swerving all over the road as he driffled with the radio without paying attention to the road at all.
"Blindfolds never lead to anything good." Dipper said, shaking his head and hugging his legs protectively. If they were going to crash, he was making sure he would be alright.
"I feel like all my other senses are heightened!" Mason said, and he started touching Dipper's face, making his brother laugh. Stan then made a sharp turn on the road and the kids jumped in their seats again. If they didn't have seat belts on right now one of the would probably would have gone out the window by now. Where on Earth was he taking them?
All of that tossing and turning was really starting to make them anxious now, and having. A blindfold on was not a good combination. "Grunkle Stan, you better now be wearing a blindfold too." Mabel said nervously, half expecting that he was, though she wouldn't be surprised.
Her question made the old man laugh out loud. "Haha, nah. But with these cataracts I might as well be.' He responded, looking over his shoulder at the kids before turning back to the windshield. That was when he spotted something up ahead and squinted, leaning forward with interest. "What is that, a woodlecker?"
This resulted in him crashing the car through a blocked off road, and the kids screamed again
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Eventually they did make it to where they were going, though barely in one piece. Stan parked the car (which had a bunch of branches and leaves sticking out of the grill) on the shore of the town's lake, then guided the triplets out of the car and side by side next to each other, and they could hear him being very giddy with how much he was laughing to himself.
"Okay okay, open em' up!" He declared.
The triplets took off their blindfolds and needless to say, were surprised by the sight in front of them. After adjusting their eyes to the sunlight, they saw that their uncle was posing in front of the lake, one foot propped on a tackle box and a hand near her eye like a captain. Over him was a banner that said Fishing Season, OPENING DAY. "Ta-da! It's fishing season!" Stan said, finally revealing what he was so excited about.
Mason seemed excited about what the day had in store however his siblings did not.
"Fishing?"Mabel asked, looking at her brothers with an expression of confusion.
"What are you playing at old man?" Dipper pressed and pointed a finger at Stan.
"Come on," Stan said, walking up to them and continuing showing enthusiasm for the day's plans. You're gonna love it, the whole town's out here!' He pointed out, turning around and gesturing to the lake. And there were certainly a lot of people already out on it.
In the middle of the lake was a woman named Susan Wentworth, though as Lazy Susan. She wore light blue eye shadow and had her lazy eye closed, unless she manually lifted it like an eye patch with her fingers whenever she needed to recheck or look carefully at something. She also wears pinkish mauve lipstick and mascara. She had gray hair in a beehive hairstyle, a grayish rose dress, and a white apron around her waist with a brown stain that looks like coffee. She has a hint of a double-chin. Her fingernails are long and are usually painted red.
The dim-witted waitress from Greasy Diner was fishing in a very unusual way. She held a pan above the water, waving it while calling out to the fish, "Here fishy fishies, get into the pan."
And on the wooden dock was a man named Toby Determined, a wannabe reporter who was the love owner of the Gravity Falls Gossiper, his failing newspaper. The man had short brown hair and glasses, with a long mustache and three freckles near the top of his head. He also has small black shoes with a hole in the left one. He wore a classic journalist outfit with suspenders and a small press fedora that is common in 20th century comic books, but it said "HAT" on it instead of "PRESS."
The man was photographing another man who had caught a fish as almost as big as his body, but when Toby went to take the the picture, the bright flash made the man yelp and tumble into the water, bringing the fish with him.
Wendy was out with her brothers and dad as well, known to the town as Manly Dan. "Is this how you do it?" One of the boys asked. "NO!" the father yelled in his face very intently. "I'll show you how a REAL MAN fishes!" Manly Dan then reached into the lake with his bare fist, pulled out a fish, and started punching it while his sons cheered.
"Dad!" "Dad!" "Dad!" They chanced while just Wendy smirked and shook her head.
Another boat drove up to the family, with a man named Tyler Cutbiker. His whole deal was apparently being the town's local 'enthusiast'. "Get em'! Get em'!" The man exclaimed
Watching all of the families having their own fun on the lake, Stan shook his head admirably and said, "Now that's some quality family bonding."
But Dipper was still very skeptical of this whole thing, and he didn't trust that today would just be fishing. "Grunkle Stan, why do you want to bond with us all of a sudden?" The boy asked, crossing his arms with a frown.
"This is gonna be great," Stan tried to assure them as he approached the kids. His usual outfit had changed for the occasion, and he was now wearing a fisherman's hat and a vest, along with a pair of gray shots. "I've never had fishing buddies before, and the guys at the lodge won't go with me. They don't 'like' or 'trust' me." He said those two words while making quotations with his fingers. The triplets couldn't possibly guess why.
"I think he actually wants to fish with us." Mabel stated the obvious, almost shocked.
"I know what will cheer you sad sacks up," Stan said and pulled out three hats from a bag. He then placed them on the kids' heads. The hats had their names on them in poor stitching, but it was obvious he had put a lot of thought into the gesture . "Boom! Pines family fishing hats!"
Dipper and Mabel took theirs off and looked at them. Dipper's name was shortened to Dippy, and the L on Mabel's almost fell off. "That's hand stitching you know!" Stan said proudly. Mason took his hat off and smiled at it, being the only one who appreciated his uncle's handiwork.
"It's just gonna be you, me and those goofy hats in a boat for ten hours!" Stan said happily and winked.
"Ten hours?!" Dipper cried.
"Yay ten hours!" Mason cheered and threw his hand in the air.
"There has to be a way out of this." Mabel whispered to Dipper and he nodded.
I SEEN IT!"
The exclamation made the kids look over and they saw an old man running frantically from the dock. He had a long white beard with a band-aid on it and has shown the ability to use it as a limb. His nose was large, pink nose with a few warts on it, and a cast on his right arm. The man wore an old brown hat, and brown overalls which are covered by his long beard. Around his feet, he wears white bandages. He was missing many teeth and had one gold tooth, and was also bald.
"I SEEN IT AGAIN!" The man continued shouting as he ran like he was being chased by something no one else could see. The bearded man sprinted through a line of rods, flipped over a table that had a bucket of fish and wore on it, slapped a tasty looking sandwich out of some poor guy's hands, before coming to a stop as a crowd formed. "THE GRAVITY FALLS GOBBLEWONKER! COME QUICK BEFORE IT SCRAMDOODLES AWAY!"
The man then began doing a crazy dance for some reason while slapping his knee. "Ha ha hoo-ha!" He yipped, and it became very apparent that there was something serious wrong with this elderly man who looked to be around Stan's age.
"Is that supposed to be a happy jig?" Mabel asked as he and her brothers carefully approached the man, being wary if he was on anything.
"NO!" He shouted in her face and suddenly grabbed her shoulders. "IT'S A JIG OF GRAVE DANGER!" Mabel pulled herself from the man's grasp and took a step back, rattled.
A few feet away from the Pines, a teenage boy with light brown hair whispered down to his younger sister, who looked to be the same age as the triplets, "Here comes Old Man Mccrazy at it again." The girl laughed at her brother's joke, stifling a giggle with her hand.
Mason snickered at the joke as well, but immediately stopped, realizing he must have looked like a creep eavesdropping on their conversation. However the girl glanced over and shot a smile in his direction, and the young boy quickly looked away with his ears burning deep red.
This man was known as Old Man McGucket, and he was pretty well known throughout the town. But for all the reasons. He was a kook, a nut job, the local crazy man always going down the streets while spewing utter nonsense. He was the guy with the same mentality as a lunatic in a mental asylum. Someone who went totally off the rails at some point and hadn't come back. So much so that even his own son was embarrassed of him.
As demonstrated when a man came out of the shop carrying a sprayer filled with water. "Hey! Hey! Now what did I tell you about scaring my customers?" The man snapped as he began spraying the crazy old man with the water, prompting him to try and shield himself with his arms like he was a cat. "This is your last warning dad!"
"Dad?" Mabel asked as she raised her eyebrow, not believing that anyone like that could possibly have a child.
"But I got proof this time by gummity!" The old man protested.
Dipper and Mabel looked at each other and shared a big smile, maybe some higher power really was listening, and that this was their way out. Plus, they were genuinely interested about this 'gobblewonker', and they wanted to see if they could find it.
The strange prospector led the crowd of people onto the dock. At the end of it in the water was a wooden boat that looked like it was split in two right down the middle, with fragments of the boat floating in the water around it. "BEHOLD!" McGucket exclaimed, pointing a finger at the boat. "It was the Gobbledywonker what done did it!" McGucket said before describing the creature. "It had a long neck like a gee-raffe, and wrinkly skin like-like this gentleman right here!" He pointed to Stan who was picking wax out of his ear. "Heh?"
"It chopped my boat up to smithereens and shim-shammed over to Scuttlebutt Island!" McGucket said before pointing to an island in the middle of the lake. The island loomed in the distance and was covered by fog, and it just gave off a generally ominous appearance. "You gotta believe me!" He said as he grabbed his son's arm
Next to the dock was a police boat, which was being operated by two of the Gravity Falls's local police force, Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durland. And if there was anything you had to know about them, it was that they weren't the sharpest tools on the box, often slacking off and couldn't care less about their jobs.
Blubs was a black older man with gray hair and a gray mustache. He was a bit on the short side and heavyset. On duty, he wore a standard police uniform, consisting of a light green shirt, a gold five-point star sheriff's badge, dark green pants, black boots, yellow and dark green shoulder patches, a black belt with a gold belt buckle that is engraved with the letter "B," a night stick, a white undershirt, black sunglasses, and a khaki-colored ranger hat with a gold shield symbol on it.
Meanwhile, his partner Durland was a lanky and pale man with a large pink nose, big ears, and a black uni-brow. He has light brown reddish hair that's cut into a buzz cut that is usually hidden under his uniform's hat. He wore the same uniform as Blubs only with tall boots with his uniform and had his trousers hiked up above his waist.
But instead of taking his claims seriously, McGucket was met with mockery. "Attention all units, we got ourselves a crazy old man." Blubs remarked as he adjusted his hat. This caused the two policemen and the whole crowd, minus the Pines, to burst into hysterical laughter.
"Aw donkey spittle!" McGucket said and trudged away defeated, while everyone continued to laugh and point at him as he walked away from the massive humiliation. Even his own son looked embarrassed and shook his head. Mason watched the old man and felt bad for him.
The crowd dispersed soon after, leaving only the four Pines standing on the dock. "Well that happened." Stan commented before hopping in the boat they would use to go out onto the lake. "Now let's untie this boat and get out onto that lake!" Stan said excitedly as he began untying the boat from the dock. The boat was named Stan O War.
"Uh Grunkle Stan?" Mason said anxiously as he looked at the boat his uncle had probably made himself. And that wasn't a compliment. "No offense, but your boat is exactly why there are safety regulations."
"Aw come on," Stan said, turning around to look at the kids while standing proud on his boat. "I know she doesn't look like much, but I made a lot of special modifications myself." He slapped the engine to show how sturdy the boat was but the engine made a sound like it was breaking down and a puff of smoke blew out right into Stan's face, making him cough.
While their uncle was dealing with boat malfunctions, Dipper turned to his siblings with absolute excitement. "Guys, did you hear what that old guy said?"
"Aw donkey spittle!" Mason replied, saying it in the same way as McGucket did.
"Aw banjo polish!" Mabel added.
Dipper shook his head. "No, no, the other thing about the monster." He said and then pulled out the magazine from earlier that he had stuffed into his vest pocket next to Journal #3. "If we can get over to that island and snag a photo of it, then we split the size money between the three of us, and we'll each get five hundred dollars, so you can get that hamster ball." He said, and it sounded like a really good deal.
Mabel put her hand on his shoulder with a very serious expression and said, "Dipper, I am one one million percent on board with this idea and I won't regret it a bit."
But Mason wasn't completely crazy about the idea. For what he knew they could be going after something that doesn't even exist, and Grunkle Stan really wanted to spend time with them today. "But what about fishing?" the boy asked, gesturing to their uncle and his boat. "Yeah this sounds super exciting and all and Grunkle Stan's boat looks ready to fall apart and drown us all, but we should give him a chance." He said, trying to reason with them. "We can't just abandon him."
"Who said anything about leaving anyone behind?" Dipper countered before walking up to Stan with a big smirk and putting his hand around him. "Grunkle Stan, change of plans. We're gonna take that boat out to Scuttlebutt Island and we're gonna find that Gobblewonker!"
He and Mabel began chanting, "Monster hunting! Monster hunt!"
McGucket then appeared again and he joined in on the chanting. "Monster hunting! Monster…eh…" He trailed off when the kids gave him strange looks. "..I'll go." The poor old man said and trudged away for the second time.
A second later there was a honking sound, and a larger much nicer boat than Stan's pulled up to the dock. This boat was owned and captioned by none other than their good pal Soos, who had appropriately named it the S.S. Cool Dude. It had a metal hull painted white, and a top section made of red wood where the steering wheel was. "You dudes say something about a monster hunt?" He asked.
"Soos!" Mabel exclaimed happily.
"What's up hambone?" He greeted before he and the girl did their signature handshake, ending on an explosion that they both made noises too.
"Nice boat Soos." Mason complimented once they were done.
Soos flashed him a toothy smile. "Thanks dawg. And you can totally use my boat for your monster hunt." He said, putting the boat like it was his child, which it probably was to him. "It's got a steering wheel, chairs. You know, normal boat stuff."
Stan then stood up in his boat, waving his arm around to get their attention. "Okay, okay, let's think this through. You kids could go waste your time on some epic monster hunting adventure, or, you could spend the day learning how to tie knots and skewer words with your great uncle Stan!" He said, puffing his chest out and placing his hands on his vest.
Dipper and Mabel looked at Soos, who began doing dance moves like he was a robot, and the thought of spending their day with him made them smile. Then they looked back down at Stan, who was standing in a boat filled with leaks, cracks, and a busted motor. The man sniffed his armpit. The thought of spending their day with him made them frown.
Then they looked over to Scuttlebutt Island, in all of its amazing and terrifying glory. They could become famous after this adventure, could buy all the hamster balls and be featured in all the interviews they want. Not to mention that searching for a giant underwater monster that can chop boats like it was the Kraken sounded like such a badass mission. Chances like these only came up once and then never again, it simply was too good to pass up.
The two kids made their decision within a second.
"So whaddya say?" Stan asked, fully expecting that they would pick him. So you can imagine his shock when his niece and nephew, minus Mason of course, climbed onto Soos's boat and they drove off, talking about how they had made the right choice as the boat zoomed away from the dock, leaving only Stan and Mason behind.
Watching this for a few seconds, Stan's heartbreak quickly turned to anger. "Traitors!" He called out before turning back to Mason with a sigh. "Well kid, at least I always have you and this box of creepy fishing lures to keep me company. Who needs' em', right?" He said.
Mason noticed Stan's hurt expression and wanted to cheer him up, and he too was sad about his siblings not wanting to fish with them. So he put on his hat and got into the boat alongside his uncle. "Don't worry Grunkle Stan, we still have each other. And by the time the sun sets, we'll have the most fish out of anyone in the whole town"! He exclaimed with his arms wide with a smile.
Stan blinked at him. Not because of any mean reason, but because he genuinely couldn't believe this kid actually wanted to spend time with him. He thought that he had lost moments like these so long ago. But now here Mason was, wearing the hat he made for him and grabbing a fishing pole. Mason reminded him of himself a lot when he was a kid, so it kinda made sense why they were closer than say Dipper.
While he had mostly forgotten how to interact with his family, especially kids, he could still try for Mason. So Stan smiled back at the boy and started up the boat.
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Meanwhile, the S.S. Cool Dude was slicing through the waters toward the direction of Scuttlebutt Island. Dipper stood at the bow of the boat, putting a foot up on the railing with his hand on his head like a lookout, doing the exact same pose that his uncle was doing earlier.
"Hoist the anchor!" He then called out, and Soos pulled a chain up and at the end was a block of concrete.
"Raise the flag!" His sister held up a flag with a sun on it, letting the cloth blow on the winds.
Mabel joined her brother by the railing, standing on one of the bars and exclaimed determinedly, "We're gonna find that Gobblewonker!"
"We're gonna win that photo contest!" Dipper added.
"Do any of you dudes have sunscreen?" Soos then asked.
They didn't. "We're gonna…go get sunscreen!" Dipper said as his friends turned the boat around back towards the shore. But they still cheered anyway. What they didn't notice was that the silhouette of a monster had swam right underneath them, before it then went away into the depths of the water.
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Back with Mason and Stan, the two were just starting to begin their fishing. Being as old as he was, Stan had been in this business before a couple times so he knew all of the strategies and tricks to catching the most fish.
"You see kid, everyone out here is competing for the same thing," Stan said, gesturing to all of the people that were on the lake in proximity to them. "But the trick is to outsmart your opponents, and lucky for you, your uncle knows just how to do that." He gave the bot a mischievous grin.
The old Pines man then reached under a spot in the seat and pulled out a tub of assorted seafood he no doubt stole from the Blackwood Market earlier that morning. "While all these nimrods are wasting their time with worms and other crap for their bait, we'll be using what will actually catch us something." Stan explained
"Grunkle Stan, isn't that kind of like cheating?" Mason asked as he looked at the tub, worried about the policemen finding out about his plan and them getting in trouble.
But Stan smirked and simply replied, "It's only cheating if you get caught." So Mason shrugged it off.
The boy grabbed a piece of small shrimp from the bucket and stuck it onto the end of his line. Then he cast the line into the water a few feet away, quickly scanning the water around it for ripples. Not all there was to do was play the waiting game, wait for an unsuspecting fish to come along and fall right for the trap. "How long is this gonna take?" Mason asked, his ADHD causing him to start getting bored already.
"That's the golden question, kid." Stan answered, holding up a finger like he was some all-knowing philosophical figure from the Greek times. "Patience is key. No one knows just how long this will take. Every cast is different from its predecessor. It could be minutes, hours, we might even be here all day trying to get just one-"
"I got one!"
His nephew's excited voice made Stan look over and saw the boy's line moving in the water. "That's great buddy now real him in!" Stan hyped. Mason struggled for a bit with it, so Stan had to help him out. But apparently this fish was stubborn so it was harder than he thought. "Oh we got a fighter
But in the end, he was victorious. The line came back to them and attached to the end was a small Rainbow Trout. The boy gasped and held it up, examining the small creature as it wiggled on the end. "I got one! I actually got one!" He exclaimed with a big goofy braces-filled grin.
"That's great kid, now do it again!" Stan said. Watching his nephew throw his line back into the water, Stan displayed a level of pride that even he didn't know he had in him.
________________________________________
After returning to shore and getting sunscreen, the S.S. Cool Dude was back on its voyage through the lake. Dipper decided to take charge of the boat and paced around the deck with his hands folded behind his back. while his sister and friend watched him with anxious expressions, standing in a line. All right, if we want to win this contest then we have to do this right." He said seriously before turning to them. "Think, what's the number one problem with most monster hunts?"
"Everyone is stupid and doesn't have an ounce of common sense." Mason answered and shrugged, before adding, "And they all run slow."
"You're a side character and you die in the first five minutes of the movie." Soos said. Seconds after he said this, the man began to panic, leaning down to Mabel. "Dude, am I a side character? Do you ever think about stuff like that?" He asked her, freaking out more. The girl gave him a strange look.
Dipper shook his head and said, "No, no. No one is dying today. The answer is camera trouble. In every photo of a 'monster' I've seen, the pictures are always blurry or they conveniently lose the footage to corruption. For example, say that Bigfoot shows up when you're on a hike," Dipper then pointed to Soos. "Soos, be Bigfoot."
So Soos posed as the monster, turning his body and headed to look like it.
"Look, it's Bigfoot!" Dipper acted out, before patting his vest down like he was looking for something. "Uh oh no camera," Then he pulled one out and held it up to take a picture, still acting. "Wait here's one, aw no film! Do you see what I'm doing here?" He said going back to his normal voice, getting his point lacrosse to his two mates.
"Uh-huh."
"Dude has a point."
Dipper then walked up to them with a brown sack carried under his arm. "That's why I bought seventeen disposable cameras. Two on my ankle," He pulled down his sock to show them hidden in it. "Three inside my jacket," He then showed the three cameras taped inside his life jacket. "Four for each of you," This prompted Mabel and Soos to open their own sacks with exactly that many cameras in it. "Three extras in this bag and finally," he lifted his pine tree hat to reveal one last camera sitting on top of his hair. "Under my hat. So there is absolutely NO way we're not gonna have a good photo of this thing."
It seemed like a good plan in his head. Having this many cameras would increase their chances
Soos decided to test a camera, so he grabbed one and took a picture. But he was holding it backwards and the blinding flash caught him off guard "Ah dude!" He exclaimed as he tossed the camera behind him and it went into the water.
"See? This is exactly why we need backup cameras." Dipper said, already knowing that something like this would happen. "We still have sixteen cameras."
Then, a seagull flew over the three of them and squawked very loudly. This startled Mabel. "Ah a bird!" She said and on instinct threw the camera at the seagulls as it flew off to get it to go away. But it missed the bird and just like Soos's camera a moment ago it plunged into the water. "Sorry bro." She said, turning to Dipper.
"It's fine," he said, though he was starting to get worried. "We still have fifteen cameras left. Okay guys I repeat, DO NOT lose any more cameras."
"Wait, lose the cameras?" Soos then asked.
DON'T!" Dipper cried, not liking the reason he would ask that.
"Cause I just threw two away." Soos replied as he gestured to two new cameras now floating in the water before they sank.
Now Dipper was getting frustrated. It was a really simple task and somehow even they couldn't handle it. "Thirteen!" He exclaimed with his hands in the air. "We still have thirteen camera-" Crunch. When he brought his fist down on the cooler, he didn't notice that there was a camera on it, and now it was shattered.
"Twelve…we have twelve cameras." He said in a pissed off tone similar to someone getting their clothes caught on a doorknob when they're already having a bad day.
"So what's the plan?" Mabel asked.
Dipper thought for a moment before pointing to her "Okay, you will be the lookout, Soos will work there steering wheel, and I will be captain." He said.
"Why can't I be captain?" Mabel complained." It's because I'm a girl isn't it!" She then said and pointed accusingly at him.
"What, no!"
"What about co-captian?" She asked.
"There's no such thing as co-captian." Dipper told her.
So she retaliated by throwing another camera overboard. "Uh, whoops." She said with an innocent smile, watching his silently freak out.
"Fine! You can be co-captain or whatever." Dipper quickly replied, starting to get really annoyed by now. Then he calmed himself so he could tell them the next step of the plan. "Our first order of business is to lure the monster with this!" The young boy said and gestured to a huge barrel that was labeled Fish Food.
"Can I be the associate co-captian?" Soos asked, walking up to them.
"As co-captain I authorize that request." Mabel told him, acting like she was an authority figure
"Yes!" Soos pumped his fist before looking at the barrel that his friend was talking about. He studied the contents at the top before turning back to the kids and asked, "Permission to taste some?"
"Permission granted." Dipper said and shrugged
'Permission co-granted.' Mabel added.
And so Soos took a handful of the stuff from the top of the barrel and then took a bite. He immediately started gagging from the horrible taste and texture while wiping his tongue with his hand. This made Dipper and Mabel laugh like crazy. "Dudes, I don't know what I expected that to taste like." He rapsed.
After laughing for a moment, Dipper cleared his throat. "All right guys, let's get on with this mission." He announced then walked back to the bow, ready to get this journey going. So Soos started up the boat.
________________________________________
Stan was flipping through his book of jokes that he brought along while Mason had his hand in the water, watching the ripples it created. 'Okay, okay, here's a good one," Stan announced with a smile and Mason looked up at him to hear the joke. "My ex wife still misses me, but her aim is getting better!" "Her aim is getting better!" Stan told the joke.
But Mason's face had confusion written on it,as expected as he would probably be too young for that kind of humor yet. "You see, it's funny because marriage is terrible!" Stan explained. But he probably shouldn't have said that. Mason immediately frowned and looked sadly in the water.
At first Stan was confused, but the realization settled in pretty quick afterwards. Why on earth would he make that joke despite knowing what was taking place at home? Sure it might've slipped his mind for a bit, but that didn't stop the guilt from crawling in from seeing his usually so happy nephew looking… well not happy.
He knew he had to make this right.
"I'm sorry kid," Stan apologized while rubbing the back of his neck. "I shouldn't have said that. I don't even know what I'm talking about to be honest. Marriage isn't that bad, not when it's with the right person. You'll devote your soul to that person, grow old with them, be happy with them.
Mason kept his head down as he mumbled, "Mom said marriage is a promise, but they broke theirs."
Stan nodded his head. "Yeah kid, I'm gonna be honest with you, life …it can suck sometimes. People they just…" He paused and looked into the water, trying to find the right words to say. " They can drift apart," he said with a sad look. "No matter hoe much you want them to stay together. But you should let what your folks are going through affect yours."
That was when Mason finally looked up to him with a raised eyebrow. "What do you mean?"
"I'm saying you're not gonna be like your parents. When you make a promise kid, you keep that promise, anyway you can. Because that's who you are. One day you're gonna find someone and you're gonna make that same promise. And you're gonna love them. Not half-ass love them, really love them with everything your heart has." Stan then put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "The bad stuff is part of growing up, but you shouldn't let that bad stuff change you."
Mason was silent before a small yet genuine smile spread on his face. "That's Grunkle Stan." He whispered, picking his fishing pole back up.
"Any time kid," His uncle replied. "Now what do you say we go back to catching ourselves a Nemo?"
________________________________________
The crew of the S.S. Cool Dude were making their way towards Scuttlebutt Island. It was a lot more scary up close than not. The fog around the island was making everything dark and eerie, as well as making it hard to navigate through. Rocks and clumps of wood from broken boats and ships surrounded them.
As they made their way through, Soos shoveled out the food from the barrel with a scooper while driving the boat. Mabel noticed a seagull sitting peacefully on the railing and got an idea. "Hey, how's it going?" Mabel said in a weird voice while using the bird's mouth like it was a puppet, moving the bottom of its beak with her hand. "It's going awesome, bow bow, ba-bow bow!"
This got Dipper's attention and he turned to the direction of the talking. "Mabel, leave the dang thing alone." Dipper sighed with an exasperated expression.
But she continued. "Aw, I don't mind." She made it, then she picked up a glass of water from nowhere. "Check this out, I'm gonna drink water," the girl said in her usual voice, before she began drinking from glass while still playing with the bird's beak. "Twinkle twinkle little-" She began coughing violently in the middle of her act, and the seagull flew away.
Dipper was about to tease her before suddenly the boat shook and stopped, startling the kids. Going to the very front of the bow and looking around, the siblings saw they had run into the shore of the island. They had officially arrived at Scuttlebutt Island, and now it was time to hunt.
"See look, we made it!" Mabel said excitedly and got off the boat, hopping down onto the sandy beach. "Stop being so worried bro-bro."
Grumbling under his breath, Dipper grabbed a lantern and followed her off the boat, with Soos behind him as well. The island was much bigger than they thought, and looked exactly like the setting from a horror movie where no one survives.
The three walked through the dark and creepy woods Dipper led the way carrying a lantern, as he was the only one with a sorcerer of light. Except for the owls hooting and the occasional snap of a branch by an animal unseen, it was dead silent. The more they carried on, the more Dipper began to become anxious about the whole thing.
A little bit later, they passed by a tree with a sign on it that had the name of the island on it, Scuttlebutt Island. Dipper walked past it without a crew in the world, but Soos didn't and used his arm to cover the 'Scuttle' part of the words, leaving only butt Island. "Dude check it out!" He said to Mabel, snickering. "Butt Island!" The two laughed at his joke, thinking it was the funniest thing in the world.
Mabel saw her brother standing a few feet away and he looked a little scared. "What's wrong Dippy," she teased with a smirk, walking up to him with her hands on her hips and an eyebrow raised. "Are you scaaaared?"
"What? No I'm not!" He shot back, though the crack in his voice and the way his eyes kept darting around gave way his fear. The sheer eeriness of their surroundings was really making him nervous.
"Yes you are!"
"No I'm not!"
"Yes you-"
ROAR. Suddenly there was a deep and low growl that echoed through the trees. Both kids jumped, causing Dipper to drop the lantern onto the ground. That was when a rat came out of the fog then took the lantern, and ran back into the fog.
"No!" Dipper yelled, reaching out to stop the rat but it was too late. Without the light, he could barely see past the treeline. There was another spooky sound, and a couple of crows that were sitting in the trees cawed. "I can't see anything."
"Uh dudes, maybe this isn't worth it." Soos said, feeling a lot more nervous now that things were starting to go wrong.
But Dipper wasn't going to give up. "Not worth it?" The boy said, turning to him. "Imagine what would happen if we got that picture!" Dipper thought for a moment, imagining all the potential fame that could come out of this, all of the interviews he could be featured in. If they actually got this photo, in his eyes everything would have been worth it, including ditching his own family. "Are you guys in or what?" He asked.
"I'm in!" Mabel agreed, after having her own daydream that involved her interrupting Dipper's future interview with her human sized hamster ball. The two kids then ran off into the fog, not caring about the possible danger they could be running into.
Soos stayed back for a few seconds, contemplating if he should go back to the boat or run after them. But they were his responsibility for now, and he didn't want to be alone in this environment. So he chose the latter. Alright dudes I'm coming!" Soos called out, followed them.
________________________________________
After Soos caught up to the kids, the three monster hunters began to take it slower, walking through the creepy forest that for some reason had gone very quiet. Unbeknownst to them, the rat that took their lantern was watching from a tree, before scurrying away. To make up for the missing noise, Soos and Mabel began to beatbox and make their own rap song.
"My name is Mabel, it rhymes with table, it also rhymes with…glabel, it also rhymes with…schmabel!"
"Dude we should be writing this down." Soos told her, pausing his beatboxing.
Just then, there was another deep and low growl, this time sounding much closer and it echoed through their veins. "Guys, guys," Dipper said, freezing his steps and holding up the camera before asking, "Did you hear that?" The crows from earlier, (were they following them?) flew away at the noise overhead. Something told them the birds didn't like whatever it was.
Watching them, Dipper began to get excited. They were getting closer to this monster. "This is it! This is it!" He whispered with a grin. He and his sister began pushing each other's shoulders playfully in their shared enthusiasm before carrying on deeper into the forest.
While Soos still looked nervous, glancing around the forest to be wary of anything popping out at them, he saw a stick on the ground with a pointy end and picked it up. It could make a good weapon if there really was any danger out there, and he felt a little better with it. Now with some protection, Soos adjusted his hat and wore a brave expression before continuing to follow the two Pines kids.
And soon enough, they found what they were looking for. Up ahead a few minutes later, Soos suddenly stopped the kids from walking further. They got their answer to why he did this when they saw what was in front of them.
Up ahead was a small body of water, and sitting in it was a large silhouette of something. Upon further inspection, it looked exactly like the shape of the Loch Ness Monster, a very well known mystical prescription from Scottish folklore. The silhouette was the same as Old Man McGucket had described earlier, with a long neck like a giraffe, connected to a circular body halfway out of the water, and a tail at the end
The Gobblewonker.
It appeared to be stationary at the moment, just sitting there in the water doing nothing. It was the perfect opportunity to take a picture of the thing. So the group ducked behind a log that was to the side. "Everyone, get your cameras ready!" Dipper whispered to them while turning on his camera. Soos turned on his and gave a thumbs up, and Mabel did the same.
This was it. This was the moment. Dipper could practically feel his heart beating against his chest. "Ready? Go!" He exclaimed.
Immediately Soos jumped from behind the log and began running straight at the silhouette, yelling while trying to ignore the bright flashing as he took the photos. Dipper and Mabel followed while taking their own pictures. But it all came to a sudden stop because when they got closer they found out it was not the Gobblewonker but instead, was a wooden carving made by beavers. There were three of them sitting on the top.
"I love cavorting!" One of them said.
"That deserves a hug!" The one next to them replied. The two hugged and the third beaver slid into the water.
Their disappointment was immeasurable and they could do nothing but stare in shock. At least the kids did, completely crushed. Soos was happy and started to take more pictures of the critters. "Oh you've gotta be kidding me.'" Mabel said dryly.
"But-but what was that noise? We heard a monster noise!" Dipper protested, still not accepting that this was the truth and spent the entire day for literally nothing.
That's when they heard it again, but it sounded much different than before. The three turned their heads and discovered that the monster noise they heard was just a beaver messing around with an old chainsaw a few feet away. "Sweet beaver with a chainsaw!" Soos said, smiling and he took another picture.
Dipper signed sadly and then sat on a rock close to land. "What the hell are we gonna tell Stan and Mason?" He mumbled before picking up a small stone, his sadness turning to bitterness. He threw it into the water, watching the ripples before they disappeared. "We ditched them for nothing!"
Just like with the Norman incident days before, he wanted to be right so badly. He really hoped there would be a monster on this island, and that he could capture it. All he ever wanted was to make a name for himself involving the world of the supernatural
"Well this was one big pile of bullshit." Mabel said behind him as she padded into the water, having tied her jacket around her waist. The girl bent down to put her hand in the water, watching a couple of tiny tadpoles swim away from it in fear. "Maybe that old man was crazy after all."
The two kids then looked over to the direction of where Soos's voice was. They saw their bigger friend taking pictures of a beaver doing multiple poses on a rock while Soos took the pictures. "Oh yeah! Nice! Work it! Gimme another one of those! I like that one!" The man said, cheering on the critter. Just Soos doing Soos things.
"Well, at least someone's having a good day." Mabel commented.
"He did have a say with words." Dipper grumbled, turning back to the water to watch his reflection. A few seconds later there was a sudden deep booming sound from depths under the water, and bubbles began to appear like something was coming up. That was when the rock he was sitting on started to shake. "Mabel do you feel-"
The boy was suddenly dropped into the water when the rock was pulled under the surface by something unseen, soaking part of his clothes. "Dipper!" Mabel said before helping him up.
Soos saw this take place and stopped taking pictures, running over to the kids. "Dudes!" He hurried to the edge of the water and then helped the two kids back into land. From there, the three watched in amazement as the rock Dipper was on just moments ago was moving around in the water, revealing that it wasn't a rick, but part of something bigger. Alive.
A tail came out of the water as the shadowy creature swam around. "That's it," Dipper whispered. "That's the creature." The boy pulled out one of the cameras stashed in his vest and snapped a picture of the Gobblewonker, grinning with excitement. He then looked back to Soos and Mabel and saw that they weren't taking any pictures.
"Come on, this is our chance!" He urged them, but his sister and Soos backed away in fear. "What's wrong with you guys?" He said, and he didn't notice that the Gobblewonker's long neck was rising out of the water behind him, glaring at the boy's back with its yellow eyes and growling deep
"Dipper…" Mabel said in a shaky voice, staring up at the creature.
"Dude!"
"It's not that hard all right, all you gotta do is point and shoot, like this!" He turned around and pointed the camera up at the Gobblewonker. Now he understood why they were suddenly so fearful and hesitant. Needless to say, the Gobblewonker didn't take kindly to visitors and it roared loudly, causing Mabel and Soos to turn around and run
Dipper stood frozen in place, completely in shock for a second before dropping the camera and running with them. The Gobblewonker gave chase, knocking down a tree to block the humans' path
Dipper heard the cracking of the wood as it broke and looked behind him, seeing the massive pine falling right towards him and Mabel. So in an act of heroism, he tackled Mabel before the tree could crush her and the two continued running as fast as they could. Trees all around them were knocked down from the giant monstrosity chasing them. "Get back to the boat! Hurry!" Soos yelled. The Gobblewonker tried to snap at Mabel but Soos grabbed her and placed her on his back.
During the intense life-or-death situation, Dipper tried to take a picture, turning around while running and aimed the camera up at the Gobblewonker's face. But his foot got caught on a branch, causing him to stumble and drop the camera. Its fate sealed to be lost forever "No, the picture!" The boy cried, stopping to try to get the camera.
"I think we have more important matters than that Dipper!" Mabel yelled out.
Soos grabbed Dipper by the back of his life vest and carried the boy as he ran down the path back towards where the boat was when they arrived. Dude if it makes you feel any better I got a bunch of pictures of those beavers dude!" He told the boy, trying to help a little.
"Why would that make me feel better?!" Dipper cried frustratingly.
Behind them, the Gobblewonker shrieked again.
________________________________________
"So what do you think they're doing right now?" Mason asked his uncle as he was sorting all of the fish they had caught for, which was actually turning out to be a lot.
"What was that?" Stan asked, turning around to face him and pausing what he was doing
"Do you think they're having fun? Like, hunting the monster that old guy was talking about?"
Stan just shrugged and said, "Well they ditched us to go on some epic quest or whatever, but I'm sure they're fine."
________________________________________
They were in fact not fine.
Not even close to it. The group was still being chased by the Gobblewonker, but they could see the shore of the island where the boat was through the trees. They were almost home free. Soos made it back to his boat and immediately climbed aboard, setting the Pines kids down before immediately going to the steering wheel.
"Let's get out of here dudes!" He said and began driving the boat away from the island. On the land behind them, the trees rustled violently as the Gobblewonker crashed onto the shore, roaring at its prey when it saw it was leaving.
Dipper saw this as an opportunity to once again try to get a photo of the monster instead of worrying for his own life. "Okay, this is it." He hyped himself up as he pulled out another camera, aiming it at the island. On the screen, it showed that it would be the best photo. But when he went to take it, he discovered the lens was cracked. "Cracked lens? Soos, get a photo!"
But instead of doing that, Soos started chucking all the cameras he could get his hands on, at the monster as it plunged into the water and swam after the boat.
"What are you doing?!"
Soos then stopped throwing and smiled at the boy. "Oh don't worry dude, I still have one left." He said, holding up the one camera left from his rampage. The man threw it at the boy to give it to him. But he miscalculated the direction and the camera instead hit part of the red cover, so the camera just broke upon impact.
The Gobblewonker rose its head above the boat, covering it in its shadow as the massive creature looked over the tiny people in retrospect. Soos then reached for the clutch, grabbing it and accelerated the boat backwards off of a wave. When it veered backward, the boat then turned around to face the right way, and Soos wasted no second to turn up the speed to the max, leading to another chase, this time on the lake.
"Look out for the beavers!" Mabel pointed ahead at the wooden structure that about a dozen or so beavers were still on. Soos sharply turned the wheel so that they wouldn't crash into it, but he was going so fast that when he did turn the wheel it was already too late. The S.S. Cool Dude crashed through it anyway, sending wood and the beavers into the air.
The critters landed on the crew and they were not happy about their creation being destroyed so they retaliated by biting the humans. Two were on Dipper and began biting down on his head over his hat, another was sticking to Mabel's arm, biting her too while she attempted to shake it off. One jumped onto Soos's face while he was driving, and he began running around the deck as he was temporarily blinded.
Mabel managed to get the animal off her and went over to the steering wheel, taking control of the S.S. Cool Dude. She turned to go away from the island. Her brother grabbed the beavers that were biting him and chucked them off the boat into the water, while Soos was still dealing with the one on his face, running around in circles.
She drove the boat to the center of the lake, which was where all the townsfolk were. Their boats flipped as the Gobblewonker went by.
On his boat, Manly Dan had a fish in a headlock, with his sons still cheering for him. Their boat suddenly flipped over and they fell into the water as something they couldn't see went last them
"Uh, what was that?" Wendy asked before fishes seemingly fell from the sky and onto the family. "THE FISHES, THEY SEEK REVENGE!" Manly Dan yelled. "SWIM CHILDREN! SWIM!" He and his kids then engaged in swimming for the mainland to avoid the fishes.
The Gobblewonker rose its head back out of the water and used it to destroy part of Soos's boat. They entered a narrow valley on the lake that had rocky offs on either side "Where do I go?! Mabel exclaimed, as ahead of them was nowhere to go but another waterfall.
Dipper pulled out the journal and frantically flipped through it, looking for anything that could help. But they were getting closer and began to panic. A second later he found something and pointed to the waterfall "Go into the falls!" He instructed his sister. "I think there might be a cave behind it!"
"Might be?!" Mabel yelled but continued driving towards it, only hoping Thayer Dipper was right and they weren't going to crash into the rocks.
Soos and the kids covered their eyes and screamed, fearing the worst was about to happen to them. But as it turns out, there was actually a cave behind it. The S.S. Cool Dude drove straight through the waterfall and crashed onto the sandy shore of the cave.
The three fell out of the boat and onto the beach, with Soos losing his shirt in the process. Breathing a sigh of relief, they all stood up and wiped the sand off themselves. Tired and wet, they just wanted the day to be over already. But their relief was short-lived when The Gobblewonker appeared ready to eat all of them. The three screamed held each other, awaiting death, but it didn't come.
So they opened their eyes and were shocked. The Gobblewonker was stuck, since it couldn't fit through the cave entrance. The monster thrashed around in place as it tried to get at them, but couldn't.
"It's stuck!" Mabel said, watching the monster try to escape
"Haha yeah!" Dipper cheered and threw his arms up, before coming to the realization. "Wait, it's stuck!"
The boy ran to a small hill in the cave and looked at the Gobblewonker below, still stuck in place. He reached into his jacket to get a camera but didn't find one. Panicking, he patted himself down but didn't feel any more cameras on him. "No!" Mabel pulled off his hat, revealing one last camera that was spared through all of it. "Boop!" Dipper grabbed the camera and immediately went to take a lot of pictures, laughing happily to himself.
The Gobblewonker tried to reach for him but Dipper just stepped back. " Did you get a good one?" Mabel asked.
"They're all good ones!" Dipper exclaimed with absolute happiness, and he and Mabel hugged. They finally had their photo, and now they could send it in to win the cash prize
Except that wouldn't be the case for much longer. A rock fell from the roof of the cave and hit the Gobblewonker on the head as it struggled. Instead of screaming in pain, the monster made a loud metallic sound and sparks flew out. The Gobblewonker then stopped moving and its head lowered into the water as if it had died.
Soos and the two Pines kids were very confused after witnessing it from their spot on the hill. "What the…" Dipper said before he hopped down off the hill and onto the Gobblewonker's fin. The boy placed his hand on the body and immediately retracted it like he had been burned. The monster didn't feel like flesh and bone, but instead cold, and metallic.
"What's wrong?" Mabel called.
But Dipper didn't answer her question and instead knocked on the Gobblewonker's body, and it made the same metallic sound. He hosted himself and started to climb to the top. "Careful dude!" Soos called out to him.
When he was at the top, he waved over to them. "Hey guys, come check this out!" He called out, so Mabel and Soos made their way over and joined him. At the top of the Gobblewonker's body was a hatch with a wheel. It confirmed Dipper's suspicions that this thing was actually a robot. Dipper turned the wheel and opened the hatch, a lot of steam blew out, making them cough.
They couldn't believe what they saw. Inside was the strange old man from before, McGucket. He was surrounded by monitors and levers. The Gobblewonker was a robot. The man fiddled with the machinery before he looked up and realized he was caught. "Aw banjo polish!" He said like a guilty child.
"Y-you built this?!" Dipper stammered. "Why?!" Even with his very smart brain, the boy couldn't believe that this man who seemed like just another untreated psychiatric patient turned out to be a total genius at engineering and mechanics. He would've felt pretty impressed that McGucket made this if the man didn't try to kill him, his sister, and friend.
McGucket stammered for a few moments, trying to think of something before he hung his head sadly and sighed. "I just wanted attention." The old man confessed.
"I still don't understand."
So McGucket began to ramble nonsense. "Well first I hootenannied up a bio-mechanical brain wave generator," He said while moving his arms around in a silly way, then wrapped his beard around a lever. "and then I learned to operate a stick shift with ma' beard!"
"Okay but, why did you do it?" Mabel asked.
"Well, when you get to be an old feller like me, no one pays any attention to you anymore." McGucket replied. Once, the man tried to play catch with his son, but he just ignored him and closed the window blinds. "My own son hasn't visited me in years! So I figured I'd catch his fancy with a fifteen-ton aquatic robot!" He started cackling like the crazy person he was then stopped and scratched his head. "In retrospect it seems a bit contrived. You just don't know the lengths us old timers go through to get a little quality time with our family."
Dipper and Mabel pulled out the hats their uncle had made for them and sighed guilty. The man's words were already depressing enough, but it hit them harder as they realized that was all Stan had been trying to do: spend time with them. And they had left him hanging.
"Haha. Dude, I guess the real monster was you dudes." Soos joked and began to laugh, but stopped when the kids both gave him a look. "Sorry dude it just boom, popped in my head there."
Mabel then turned back to the man and asked, "Did you ever talk to your son about how you felt?"
"No sir! I got straight to work on my robot!" He answered before pulling up a slideshow and flipped through different images. "I made a lot of robots in my day, like when my wife left me, I made a homicidal pterodactyl-tron! Or when my pal Ernie didn't come to my retirement party and I constructed an eighty ton SHAME BOT THAT DESTROYED THE ENTIRE DOWNTOWN AREA!" He started laughing maniacally again.
Dipper held the camera. "So much for the photo contest." He said in a depressed tone.
"We still have one roll of film left." Mabel told him.
"What do you want to do with it?"
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Stan and Mason were getting ready to head back to land. They hadn't caught as much fish as they had wanted, but they were still proud of what they had. "Alright buddy, ready to go home?" Stan asked.
"Yup!" Mason replied cheerfully.
As Stan began driving back towards the dock, someone called out "Hey over here!" So he stopped his boat and looked around.
Soos's boat, or what was left of it, pulled up next to them. Dipper took a picture of Stan And Mason. The S.S Cool Dude was practically unrecognizable at this point, with more than half the hull destroyed and part of it flooding with water. It was a wonder how it was still able to move.
"I thought you two were off playing spin the bottle with Soos!" Stan said.
"Well we spent all day trying to find a made up dinosaur." Dipper said. "And then we realized the only dinosaur we should've been with was you!" Mabel added.
"You can save your sympathy!" Stan waved them off. " Me and Mason have been having a great time without you! We've been catching fish, cracking jokes, we had a run in with the lake police and now.i have to wear an ankle bracelet." Stan lifted his leg to show them.
"So I guess there's not room.on that boat for three more?" Dipper asked.
Stan squinted at them with a glare. He was feeling bitter about them abandoning him earlier for what turned out to be a fake monster. But when Dipper and Mabel put on their hats, he softened as he realized they were at least trying to make up for it, and they still had about an hour and a half of sunlight left to spend with him."You knuckleheads ever see me thread a hook with my eyes closed?" He asked them
"Five bucks says you can't do it!" Dipper betted, stepping into the Stan O War next to Mason.
"Five more bucks says you can't do it while I sing at the top of my lungs!" Mabel exclaimed as she climbed in as well.
"I like those odds!"
Soos was the last to step in, and Mason noticed his missing shirt and all the scratches on his stomach. "Soos what happened to your shirt?" The boy asked, pointing to the man's bare stomach.
All Soos did was shake his tired head and said, "Long story dude."
"Everyone say, fishing!" Dipper said as he held up the camera, aiming at his family and Soos.
Mason, Mabel, and Stan got together in a group so he could take the picture. "Fishing!" Rheyvall said. Soos stepped in at the last second, however only his stomach could be seen in the frame. "Dude am I in the frame?" He asked.
PLAY MUSIC: OCEAN MAN BY WEEN
The five spent the rest of the afternoon having fun and taking pictures while they fished. The first one showed Mabel covering Stan's eyes while he tried to thread a hook. The second had Stan telling jokes, with Dipper looking annoying while the others laughed. The third showed Dipper catching his first fish and everyone celebrating. The fourth one showed Stan posing as a captain at the front of the boat, like he did earlier. The fifth showed Mabel stealing some fish from a little girl. And finally, The last picture showed them fleeing from the lake police after the same family reported them
As the sun was setting on the lake, turning the sky into a hue of purple and orange, Stan was driving them back to the shore. It was a long day of monster hunting and fishing, but in the end everything worked out alright. Dipper and Mabel trashed all of the photos taken on their adventure, as there was no use for them now. Also so they could make way for new ones about their family.
When they got closer to the dock, that was when something in the water made the boat jolt, surprising everyone on board. "What was that?" Dipper asked, turning to Mason and Mabel as he laid back with his hands under his head in a relaxed position. His siblings just shrugged and smiled. So he put it off. Right now, this was time for family.
However that jolt, down below in the water, the Gobblewonker, the REAL one, swam past them.
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And that ends the updated chapter two.
As I'm going through with these updated chapters, I'm not going to go in order. I'll be doing my favorite ones first and then getting to the rest when I can.
Thank you very much for reading. If you enjoyed, please feel free to Follow or Favorite, or leave a review to let me know how I'm doing. Feedback is much appreciated.