Chapter Text
Chapter One
-Three months after the death of Belos-
"¡Niños, el desayuno está listo!" Camila called from the kitchen and three teens raced down the stairs, but none of them actually ran down the wooden stairs. Vee just transformed into her human form and slid down the railing, Luz flew down on her staff, while Hunter motioned a quick two-finger salute as he leaned on the edge of the second floor and, in a blur of yellow light, landed at the bottom of the staircase before his sisters even had a chance to catch up.
"Hermano, that's cheating!" Luz reminded her older brother, who just smirked as he helped himself to breakfast, making sure to grab as many of the pancakes as possible.
"Well, you get use your Palisman, so why can't I use mine?" Hunter asked as Luz opened her mouth to argue, but closed it after she processed what her older brother had said as Luz's Palisman, Stringbean, turned into a small purple snake-like bracelet wrapped around her owner's wrist. "Also, why isn't Vee being called out for cheating?"
"Duh, I was born a shapeshifter! >:3" Vee explained as she transformed her face to correctly 'pronounce' the emoticon. "You two both used abilities you weren't born with. Heh, Masha loves when I make that face."
"We get it, we get it, you have an enbyfriend now. Now, let's talk about the fact that you said 'golly' after they first kissed you." Hunter added, changing the subject as Vee groaned at his words.
"Yeah, you totally don't have a crush on Willow." Vee shot back as Hunter blushed profusely at the mention of his crush.
"Hah, I didn't say anything like that when Amity first kissed me...wait, are we talking about before or after we started dating? If so, I plead the fifth on any further questions regarding this subject." Luz wondered as she continued eating. Camila sighed as she sat down with two cups of coffee, one of which she passed to Hunter. "Hey, why does he get coffee?"
"Pfft, you think I survived sixteen years in the Emporer's Coven pulling all nighters constantly without having at least five cups of pure caffeine every day?" Hunter asked as Luz, Vee, and Camila looked at him in concern. "This is one of those concerning things that I shouldn't say casually, isn't it?"
"Sí, y mucho, mijo. But, on a better note, I was thinking of all of us going on a vacation this month!" Camila added ecstatically as Luz cheered and Vee, Hunter were still confused. "A vacation is where you go to wherever your destination is and don't go to school or your job in that time. I was thinking we could go to Gravity Falls in Oregon, since I heard it's a decent tourist destination, but it's on the other side of the country and I don't want to spend that much money on fuel and other amenities, so we might just take a plane instead since Oregon is 41 hours and 28 minutes away when driving by car, not counting traffic and other breaks."
"Why is a singular country so big?! The entire Boiling Isles is the size of your sixth smallest state, yet this country itself is 52,850,000 square kilosteps!" Hunter complained as Camila just raised an eyebrow and he calmed down a bit. "By the way, one kilostep is about 2,000 feet in imperial measurements and around 610 meters in the metric system."
"Why do we even need to know that? I had to teach myself to perfectly memorize the conversion rate from Titan measurements to both the metric system and the imperial system in a single summer, I doubt I need to hear it again." Vee added as she continued eating her food. "And I'm sure Luz memorized it by heart just to impress a certain cotton candy-haired goddess. Hah, I knew it!" Luz blushed when Vee mentioned her girlfriend, Amity, and trying to impress the witch in question.
"Hey, I also did it to help with my studies at Hexside!" Luz informed frantically before calming down. "Speaking of which, we'll need to tell Principal Bump that we're going to be on vacation for the next few days. Vee, are you still good with joining us this semester? You don't have to go if you don't want."
"I'll be fine, hermana! Besides, we're the Noceda siblings for Titan's sake, we are basically celebrities on the Boiling Isles!" Vee exclaimed as Luz and Hunter winced. "Let me guess, people still pick on you two because one of you got revived by the Titan so everyone thinks that it's unfair and the other one is a Grimwalker and the former right-hand of the dictator who got us into this whole mess? Perdona, hermano, no quise decirlo así."
"No, no, it's fine. I've.....been called worse." Hunter trailed off as tension settled over the four, Camila trying to find a way to lighten the mood until Luz beat her to the chase, slamming a hand down on the table, which was worn down from constantly getting caught in the crossfire of the siblings' antics.
"Hey, stop being sad! I don't care what those imbéciles say, you're clearly better than them if they stoop that low just to belittle people like you!" Luz reassured and Hunter smiled gratefully as she continued. "Besides, you're so much more than just another Grimwalker of Caleb! You're our annoying older brother, Mamá's oldest kid, a really good guitarist for your age, the apprentice to Dell Clawthorne, student of the Raine Whispers, an honorary Hexsquad member, the top student in the bard, potions, and beast-keeping tracks, and one of the teenagers who saved the Boiling Isles from that pile of moldy green goop."
"Th-thanks, lucecita." Hunter thanked before remembering something. "Dang it, we have homework for oracle track classes. Wait, Luz, is that homework for Astronomy?"
"Nah, I think it's for Summoning 101, since it talks about the materials needed for summoning." Luz theorized before rethinking her hypothesis. "But, it did mention how celestial bodies affect spiritual activity, so it could be for General Oracle Studies. Oh well, I can just ask Ms. Aletheia when we get back."
"W-wait, ghosts are....real?" Camila stuttered and Luz instantly knew what her mom was implying.
"Well, you need oracle magic to summon any spirits at all and you'd need an object that belonged to the person to summon their spirit. Also, it usually requires hard-to-find magical ingredients most of the time. And the entire process requires, well, magic that I doubt can be achieved with our lack of glyphs." Hunter explained simply, not understanding what or who Camila was referring to.
"O-okay." Camila muttered as Vee and Luz shared a look and decided to take action for themselves.
"Mamá, when are we going to start packing? The three of us can get packed and ready to leave in about.....an hour if we're counting the times we use magic. Also, will it just be us four? Because, I'm sure that Collin will want to join us." Luz asked, referring to the Collector by their nickname since it was easier to remember. "Y'know, since you've basically adopted them and they still want to keep exploring both realms as a normal kid."
"Well, as long as there's a way for them to release their magic every now and then, I think it'd be fine if they were to come with us. Did I use their pronouns right?" Camila permitted, but still a bit confused. Luz nodded eagerly. "Oh, great. This whole thing is still a bit confusing, but I think I'm getting used to it. Though, the part of me that got straight As in ELA during college is very mad right now since I'm referring to a person with pronouns that are usually used for multiple people."
"You sure those were straight As?" Luz asked with a laugh as she cleaned up the table. Hunter was still confused, but Vee was busy dying laughing.
"Pfft, straight As." Vee deadpanned as Hunter just raised an eyebrow.
"I'm....so confused right now. Do you get it, Mamá?" Hunter asked as he turned to Camila, who was trying not to laugh as well. "I still don't get it."
"Yeah, I'll explain all of those labels later." Luz added. "Nah, I can just explain it now. So, I'm bisexual; which means I like girls and boys, but prefer one over the other. Vee is transgender, so she was born non-binary, but felt more like a girl. Collector is non-binary, so they use they/them pronouns. Amity's a lesbian, so she only likes girls; hence why she's dating me. There's lots of other labels, so I can give you a more in-depth explanation later."
"Wh-what's that thing where you, like, figure something out and it's really important?" Hunter wondered, slowly coming to an epiphany as he snapped his fingers, as if that would make the word appear before him.
"You mean an epiphany? Like, an illuminating discovery, realization, or disclosure? Yes, I just recited the dictionary entry, I had to memorize the entire thing in three months; what did you expect?" Vee added sarcastically and Hunter snapped his fingers at her a last time with a grin.
"Yeah, that thing. That's what I'm having." Hunter added as if he had just been given a medical diagnosis for what's wrong with him, which he had many times before. "I think I need to schedule a session with Sasha, this seems important or something."
"Hijo, you already have an appointment next week. Come on, let's get packed. Lucecita, do you mind seeing if Collin is free to come on the trip?" Camial instructed as Luz nodded and pulled out her phone, which had been upgraded to work between realms. "Gracias, mija. Now, how will we even get to Gravity Falls?"
"Mamá, Collector could get us there so much faster. He destroyed an entire mountain with a snap and not a second though!" Luz reasoned with exaggerated hand gestures. Camila sighed as she shook her head in disbelief.
"Mija, people would see that! I cannot believe I have to say this, but you know the rules, no magic outside of this household or the Boiling Isles! People will notice and we don't want a repeat of Halloween.....or any of the times I've interacted with that estúpido from the museum, Jacob." Camila argued, but all of the kids in the room tensed at the mention of last Halloween and Vee's human form faltered a bit at the mention of Jacob. "Ay, lo siento, hijos. Anyways, let's get packing.
"How long are we gonna be gone for? I'm guessing only a week." Luz wondered as she stopped half-way up the staircase, Camila nodding in response. "¡Vale gracias, mamá! I'll get a hold of the Collector to see if they can join us!"
"I'll get packing.....byeeee~!!" Hunter called out, ending it off with a wave and flash stepped to the basement.
"I'm going to assume that's a Clawthorne thing?" Camila wondered to herself as Vee just shrugged.
"Hey, I never do that!" Luz added indignantly with a smirk. "It's probably just a Hunter thing, I mean, he does every time. Come on, Stringbean, let's go! Okay, byeeee~!!" Luz hopped on her staff and flew back up the stairs.
"Nevermind, it's a Clawthorne thing." Vee added to herself as her appearance instantly reverted back to her basilisk form and slithered off to go start packing.
☆--☆--☆
"And...done!" Collector explained happily as they surveyed the pile of suitcases and bags. "Hmm, you think we can squish them together more?"
"Considering the weight of the bags and the space you're trying to fit them in, you would create a blackhole and mortals, or this galaxy for that matter, definitely wouldn't survive that." Hunter deadpanned as everyone turned to him. "What? I like Cosmic Frontier, it's a package deal along with space knowledge."
"Hmm, I can fix that! I can just make pocket dimension inside of the biggest suitcase and stuff all of the other bags inside of it!" Collector reasoned with a smile as they floated above the pile. "It'd still register as the weight of however much the bag can normally hold, so none of the other mortals would get suspicious!"
"It's like a bag of holding." Luz gasped before coughing to cover up her excitement. "I told you, I read about this stuff."
"Well, maybe I'm an idiot." Hunter mumbled as he recalled the last time he had said the very same thing, Luz raising an eyebrow at the mumbled phrase. "Vee, you were saying something?
"Anyways, how the heck are we going to do anything without being seen by anyone? You two have already been seen by humans." Vee reasoned as Hunter and Luz glanced at eachother. "It's a good thing that everyone's too skeptical to believe those videos are real, but you two still need to stop using magic!"
"Hah, first I was getting lectured about not having magic and now I'm getting chewed out for using it too much." Luz added.
"Oh well, guess it's up to me." The Collector noted with a smile as they snapped and all of the suitcases flew into the seemingly endless space that was a nearby blue suitcase that had the same patterns as Collector's clothes and hat did. Then, they snapped their fingers again and their hair turned platinum blonde, the purple shape on their face turned to look like vitiligo, their scleras turned from yellow to white, their irises changed from a light red to hazel, their hat changed to a purple beanie like Luz's, their nightgown-like clothes changed to a sweater and jeans with the same designs as their normal outfit, and the yellow on their face turned light tan. In the blink of an eye, the Collector Collin looked like a normal human kid that seemed to be around ten years old. "See? Now I look normal."
"Ay que lindo!" Camila gasped as she ran up and hugged Collin, who grinned happily before being set down. "Come on, I just bought us plane tickets. ¡Vamos, niños!" The five walked out to the door to the car excitedly.
☆--☆--☆
"That's odd..... the Weirdness entity/interdimensional radar device is picking up five different entities that are heading towards us as we speak," An older man noted as he peered down at the walkie-talkie-like device in his six-fingered hand. The device was a large handheld walkie-talkie shaped device with a small dark green screen covered in coordinates and practically indecipherable strings of numbers. "Dipper, what do you think?"
"Hmm, give me the W.E.I.R.D for a second, I have an idea," Dipper muttered, adjusting the white and blue pine tree hat on his head, revealing a quick glimpse of his birthmark which had an uncanny resemblence to the constellation, Ursa Minor. Dipper took the offered W.E.I.R.D and pushed a series of buttons, causing the screen to flip to a slow spinning radar, five light green dots with strings of numbers that floated abive them slowly approaching the light green clump that was the majority of Gravity Falls' residents. "Holy shit, look at those Weirdness levels! Th-the one at the front, i-it's almost on par with.....him. And, while the other entities are considerably weaker, their Weirdness levels are nothing to laugh at!"
"While you are right, my boy, I do have several notices about this. We have no idea what this quintet's notions are, but I can confirm that none of them are any of Bill's henchmaniacs. I've kept detailed records of each henchmaniacs' Weirdness level and none of them match any of these entities, also I doubt that any of them aren't dead or in Theraprism along with Bill," Ford noted simply before continuing. "But, while informing the others isn't a terrible idea, it may cause tension and post-traumatic stress-related reactions considering the possiblity of these clearly powerful entities having hostile notions."
"I mean, you're not wrong, but it could also cause more stress by lying to people about the matter. So, I think it'd be best to inform the rest of the Zodiac about this along with lots of reassurance that none of these entities are with Bill," Dipper responded diplomatically as Ford nodded in approval. "Okay, I'll make sure to tell the rest of the crew." Dipper called out a quick farewell as he made his way past generators, discarded tools, exposed wires, and glowing computers to the elevator, making sure to close the vending machine behind him as he made his way through the Mystery Shack.