Gravity Rises (S1)

VV: Part One

It's hard to be a ghost hunter when adults stop you all the time.

Thirteen-year-old Mabel Pines knew this better than anyone. How often had her parents, or other concerned adults, pulled her away from a perfectly good ghost hunt? Again and again, she tried to explain what she was doing. That there were bound to be ghosts nearby. That she didn't actually want to hurt the ghosts, if that's what her parents were worried about: She only wanted to find them. Maybe help them, if they needed help. And no, Mom, she wouldn't step on broken glass in that abandoned house. She just wanted to explore!

Again and again, she was ignored.

Until now. Now, things would be different. Now, she and her twin brother, Dipper, were on the last leg of a bus ride from their home in California to the middle of Oregon. They were headed to a town called Gravity Rises, to be specific — a town Mabel had never heard of before now.

She'd never heard of the man they would stay with, either. But he was family. His name was Stanford Pines, and he was Mabel's great uncle. A town local, the owner of a museum, and — oh yeah — a supernatural researcher.

Her parents had tried to warn her. Don't get your hopes up too much, Mabel. His museum is a tourist trap. He just pretends to be a supernatural researcher to attract customers. Surely the displays will all be fake.

But Mabel knew better. A supernatural researcher, in her family? He had to have the same instinct, the same drive, that she had! A small part of her brain believed her parents, and that part tried to keep her from getting her hopes up, but most of her was too excited to pay attention. Surely Great Uncle Stanford would be everything she was imagining. He would show her what he was studying — he would take her and Dipper on magical adventures — and, for once, he wouldn't be an adult that stopped her from exploring.

She could hardly wait.

The scenery, drifting by as the bus rumbled down the road, only added to her anticipation. "Dipper, look at all that snow!" she said, pointing out the dingy bus windows. "I've never seen that much! What do you think is hiding under there?"

Her twin bounced up and twisted around in his seat, pressing his face to the window. "A fox? A tiny moose?" He gasped. "A system of ice tunnels! With snow mice!"

Mabel cocked her head. "What are snow mice?"

"Mice made of snow! They melt in your hands, but they're super cute, so it's really hard to resist picking them up."

This description made Mabel smile. As far as she knew, snow mice weren't a thing, but Dipper had a talent for coming up with fun ideas off the top of his head. "Well, maybe Great Uncle Stanford keeps snow mice as pets," she said.

"I hope not," Dipper replied. "They melt indoors."

"Maybe he has special cages for them."

"Maybe!"

Mabel looked back out the window, her smile lingering as she watched the snow. Pretty soon, though, her doubts started to surface. She'd done a good job ignoring them thus far, but with less than an hour left on the trip, she couldn't stop them from popping up anew. Thoughts like: What if Stanford is a fake? What if this winter break is a huge disappointment? What if she and Dipper were stuck inside with nothing to do for weeks on end?

"Mabes? You okay?"

Dipper, ever observational, had noticed her smile melt from her face like a captive snow mouse. She sighed and looked to her brother. "Yeah, Dip, I guess so. Just nervous."

"About Great Uncle Stanford?"

She nodded. "I mean — you know how you imagine something, and you get all excited for it, but then it never turns out as awesome as you thought it would be?"