Return of Cipher (Hatters!AU: Return to the Falls)

Chapter III: Three Mysterious Hikers

Author's Notes:

I decided to move the original beginning of Return of Bill Cipher to a different thing bc it made more sense lmao

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Chapter Started: 1/29/23

Chapter Finished: 2/4/23

~

July 2021

Gravity Falls, Oregon

Lucky

"Is it just me, or does everywhere in this forest look exactly the same?" Bendy asked, staring at our (thankfully laminated) map confusedly as I held his umbrella. "I could've sworn we were on the path a few seconds ago!"

I looked down at my tiny brother, rolling my eyes. "You clearly haven't been paying attention then. Do you even know where we are?"

After a few minutes of only cricket's chirps and the shushing of the rainfall, Bendy laughed nervously. "No."

I facepalmed. "Christ, now you've gotten us completely lost!" As thunder cracked in the distance, I added, "And in a thunderstorm at that!"

"I knew we shouldn't have let him lead!" Blackhat added. "I had a feeling you'd do something stupid and ruin everything!"

"I ain't doing anything stupid!" Bendy snapped back, looking back at the map.

I squatted down under his tiny umbrella and looked over his shoulder, noticed the words were upside down, then stood up and placed my hands on my hips and said, "You dolt, you're holding the map upside down!"

Bendy flipped the map right side up. "...Oh."

"Give me that!" Blackhat snatched the map from Bendy's hands and looked it over, then grinned evilly.

"What is it, Blackhat?" I asked curiously.

"Perhaps his idiocy can be excused just this once," Blackhat replied. "According to this map, we're already here."

I stepped in front of Blackhat and looked at the shack in front of us, the stars highlighting the sight. I grinned darkly and handed Bendy his umbrella, closing my own as I hid my large wings. "Well, boys, it looks like we're here."

"Perfect!" Blackhat said, shapeshifting into his mortal form. "Now, everyone act natural. Should we meet anyone, I'm Jefecito, she's Karma, and you're... Bendy."

"Just say it's a nickname," Bendy said, readjusting his propeller cap. "Which it technically is, but I ain't telling total strangers my full name!"

"Okay, Benjamin," I snickered.

"Shut up!"

~

Dipper

Mabel and I had just gotten back from a long trip to the furniture store, since she had decided to drag me along so she could ask for my opinion on the various furniture pieces she was picking out (which she could've just texted to me, but then again, I needed to get out of the house and this was a good opportunity to do so). The trip itself went on for far longer than it had to, and ended up being way more expensive than we'd expected (Mabel was a little too obsessed with the fairy lights and basically anything in the store that was cute to her). Unfortunately for me, the easiest part of Mabel's sprucing-up plan was the trip to the store. Now came the assembly of the millions upon millions of furniture pieces we bought, a process that cut deep into the night like a blade to skin. You'd think Mabel would help with the harder stuff since she picked out most of it, right? Oh, I wish. Nope, she had to dump all the hard stuff on me, because while she assembled the smaller stuff and tiny bits and pieces of the furniture, I was sitting on the floor struggling to figure out what the instructions meant.