Gravity Rises (S1)

NW: Part Two

Mabel ran through the Mystery Museum gift shop, nearly knocking over a little old lady looking at stuffed griffins. After a hurried apology, she was off again. She dashed over to the checkout counter after a quick scan for Ford. Her great uncle was nowhere to be seen, so she had no problems with slapping the big burgundy book in her arms onto the counter with a thud.

The people at the checkout counter — Dipper, Robbie, and a few customers — jumped at the sound. "Ow, Mabel, that's loud!" said Dipper.

"You're loud all the time," she shot back as she flipped the Journal open. "You have to look at this," and she stabbed a finger at the page. "There's a Bottomless Pit in the forest, and Fo—" She paused and glanced at Robbie. "The Author would throw stuff in, and sometimes it would come out, and sometimes it would be gone forever, and he couldn't find any correlation—"

"Sometimes," Robbie interrupted, accepting money from a tourist and not looking at Mabel, "I find it fascinating that the two of you can both speak at a mile a minute."

Mabel flushed but pressed on. "There's this old paper with the Author's trials on it, and I think I found the secret to the Pit!"

Dipper's expression told that he had no idea what was going on, but he wanted to look excited because Mabel was excited. "So, what is it?"

"Lunar cycles," Mabel said triumphantly. "He's mentioned them before, in relation to Portal Potties—"

"To what now?" Robbie glanced over at them. "What is that book, anyway?"

"U-um," Mabel stuttered. "It's, um—"

"It's this crazy book about supernatural stuff!" Dipper blurted. Mabel shot him a glare when Robbie wasn't looking, but the twin winked in return.

"Sounds like there's some interesting stuff in there," Robbie said, sounding amused.

"There is!" Dipper said. "Mabel loves it, because she's way into magic stuff. Sometimes, she even thinks it's real."

Mabel caught on then. "It is!" she protested.

Dipper shrugged and gave Robbie a knowing look. Mabel frowned; she wasn't sure she enjoyed being the scapegoat of this little fib.

Robbie looked between Mabel and Dipper, then laughed. "You kids are pretty—"

"Excuse me, sir," said a voice cracked with age. "Does this griffin plushie come in any other colors?"

While Robbie turned to deal with the old lady (the same one that Mabel had run into a few minutes before), Mabel leaned towards Dipper and jabbed a finger at the Journal. "I can't be sure until I test it myself," she said in a conspiratorial whisper, "but I'm almost positive that things are more likely to reappear around a full moon."

"Wouldn't Ford have figured that out himself?" Dipper asked, forgetting his excited act. "I mean, he's been doing all sorts of boring stuff like that for years, hasn't he?"

Mabel gave him a withering look. She liked it better when he pretended to be interested. "For whatever reason, Ford lost or got rid of the Journal. He probably wouldn't want to restart all his calculations. Anyway, the correlation is faint; but there's going to be a lunar eclipse tonight, so just imagine—"

"Oh, hey, the lunar eclipse!"

Mabel looked up. Robbie had finished talking to the old lady and was apparently listening to the twins' conversation. "Y-you know about it?" Mabel asked. Could he be into astronomy too?

"Sure," Robbie said. "The squad and I always go out camping during eclipses. It's a fun tradition of ours."

Mabel's face fell. "Oh," she said quietly. Robbie didn't seem to hear her.