Gravity Rises (S1)

DRB: Part Three

Mabel walked through the shadowy halls of the building. She'd better hurry before the intermission was over. Where might she find a bathroom. . . ?

A sudden slam made her jump and whirl around to see a sliver of bright light not too far from her. A door opened, and a figure stood silhouetted in the stark light.

Pacifica?

The two girls locked eyes; Mabel wanted to run away, but she couldn't move. She felt cornered by a large predatory animal. Pacifica was a little smaller than Mabel; but with her big round skirt and even bigger hairdo, you could hardly notice her diminutive size. Her eyes flared on contact with Mabel's. "Come to mock me, little girl?" she demanded. Mabel flinched; this harsh voice was nothing like how Pacifica sounded onstage.

"N-no, I don't know what you mean," Mabel stuttered. "I was just—"

"You don't know what I mean?" Pacifica repeated. Her voice grew a little bit more hysterical with every word. "Liar! You're shutting me out!" She started to advance on Mabel, who stepped back. "No, no, you know," she hissed, "yet you sit there all innocently while I—"

She stopped. Maybe she saw the growing look of fear on Mabel's face, or maybe it was something else. The almost-insane Pacifica before Mabel shrunk back until she had a dazzling smile on her face. "Oh, I'm so sorry," she said, slipping back into her mystical psychic voice. "I don't know what came over me. Patrons aren't allowed back here, I'm afraid."

Mabel stared at her for a moment. It was like talking to a completely different person. What had just happened? "Um, s-sorry, I was just looking for the bathroom."

"Down that hall to your left," Pacifica said, pointing. "Thanks for coming to the show."

"Th-thanks," Mabel replied, hurrying in that direction. She quickly used the bathroom and returned to her seat, though she wasn't sure she wanted to stay for the rest of the show. After that encounter, she was thoroughly spooked. How could Pacifica seem so perfect onstage, yet so. . . unstable in that dark hallway?

Once the show resumed, Mabel found herself unable to focus on anything but Pacifica's purple-lidded eyes. Something was going on behind there that nobody could comprehend.

~~~~~

"Wasn't that awesome?" Dipper flipped around and jumped backwards down the street, grinning at Mabel and Melody.

Melody shrugged. "A bit too dramatic for my taste," she said. Mabel had to agree.

"Okay, yeah, but she really sold it, didn't she? I really believed she was psychic for a minute there. She really made it seem real. And, Mabes, did you notice? She stared right at us! She stopped talking and just stared at us and then moved on! It was really weird, huh? But also cool. She didn't even read our minds or anything, but she seemed to notice us." He grinned, and Mabel could tell he was perfectly happy to be noticed by Pacifica.

For her part, Mabel didn't think that it was at all a good thing to be noticed by Pacifica Pleasure. She had seen when Pacifica paused and stared at them; it had freaked her out. And that was before the incident during intermission. Did Pacifica's odd behavior then have something to do with her odd behavior in the show?

"It's too bad we couldn't go see her afterwards," Dipper lamented. "She was so cool."

Melody tilted her head. "What does that mean?" she asked.

"He has a crush, can't you tell?" Her tone was a little more sullen than Mabel had intended. She still wasn't sure if the intermission incident had really happened — it had felt very dreamlike — but either way, she didn't like this crush. She hoped it would pass soon.

"Are you jealous, Mabel?" teased Dipper. "Don't worry. There's enough of my awesomeness to go around."

"Ew, no," said Mabel, though she did always feel a little lonely when Dipper was spending time with a crush instead of with her. "I still say she's creepy. Or do you want a girlfriend who will talk to you in this mystical voice?" On that last part, she dropped her voice into an imitation of Pacifica's.

Dipper rolled his eyes. "That was just for her performance. I'm sure she doesn't really sound like that."

The harsh voice from intermission floated through Mabel's head, and she shivered. No, her real voice was definitely different.

The Mystery Museum was in view, and Dipper turned around and ran inside. Mabel and Melody, however, kept ambling along in silence until they reached the porch.

"Hey, thanks for joining me, Mabes," Melody said. Usually Dipper was the only one to call Mabel by that nickname, but Melody had picked it up quickly in the week or so that the twins had been in town.

"Thanks for taking us," Mabel replied. "'Night," she said as she opened the door.

"Good night." Melody waved the girl off and then turned to go home.

Mabel leaned against the door for a moment after she entered the Museum, closing her eyes.

"Was it worth it?" asked a gruff voice.

Mabel's eyes snapped open to see Ford standing in front of her, arms crossed.

She started to stammer something out to him, but she stopped herself. What was she going to say? Would she tell him what had happened during intermission? Even if he believed her, he probably wouldn't do anything about it. Finally, "I don't know, Grunkle Ford," she said simply. "Good night."

She pretended she couldn't feel his eyes boring a hole in her back as she climbed up the stairs.