Some Legends Are Told, Some Turn To Dust Or To Gold [CEREALIA INBOX]

[zerotohiro]

'Busy, leave a message!
...oh, you've reached Hiro Hamada. Whatever. Still busy!'

Hamada art by D-Joel, found on tumblr

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[zerotohiro]

Not exactly, but I didn't really think to ask either. It just felt kinda weird, you know? [Dipper's his best friend. He wasn't sure if that'd be kosher to know about said-best friend's future when he hadn't even lived through it himself.] Mabel and I haven't really talked about Gravity Falls much.

[cryptologic]

[ Yeah, that probably would've been...weird. Especially considering Mabel hadn't told Dipper much about what happened before he disappeared, either. ]

There...might be a reason for that. She didn't even talk to me about the future much. She, uh, definitely neglected to mention the impending apocalypse, at least.

[ Wow, way to bury the lead there, Dip. ]

[zerotohiro]

…the what now. [UH. Hiro's pausing, staring at Dipper for a brief moment as he processes what he's just heard and getting stuck somewhere on the word "apocalypse."] Why wouldn't anybody mention the apocalypse?

[cryptologic]

[ Dipper can't help a wry grin at the question. Okay, maybe he teased it in that way a little bit on purpose. ]

I don't know. I guess it's not great to hear the end of the world is in your future. But the good thing is, we kind of reversed it?

[zerotohiro]

[Yeah he'll. Just bury his head in his hands and scrub them over his face, so his words are a little muffled when he speaks again.]

You already know my next question, dude. How did you guys reverse the apocalypse? Aren't apocalypses supposed to be irreversible?

[A pause.] This has something to do with what your uncle did, doesn't it. With the interdimensional portal.

[cryptologic]

You would think so, huh? Not when the Pines family is on the case, though.

[ Nope, not just "Pines twins". Stan and Ford had just as much to do with cancelling the apocalypse as he and Mabel did. ]

Yeah, it does. Have I told you anything about Bill Cipher before?

[ He knows he's mentioned it to some people here, but he's honestly not sure if Bill has ever come up in conversation with Hiro before. ]

[zerotohiro]

[Pines family. It doesn't take a genius to understand what Dipper's implying, but there's something else to take care of first. He settles mostly for looking mildly alarmed but he'll take the bait anyway.]

There's a first time for everything. Who's Bill?

[cryptologic]

A dream demon. We were dealing with him all summer. He helped this kid, Gideon, try to steal the deed to Mystery Shack out of my uncle's mind and kiiiiiind of possessed me to try and steal my uncle's journal. [ BUT THAT IS A STORY FOR ANOTHER TIME. It's still a little embarrassing how Bill was able to trick him, even if they had defeated him in the end. ] We didn't realize what a threat he was until Ford came out of the portal, though. Activating the portal created an interdimensional rift in space-time, and while Ford was able to contain it, Bill wanted it so he could break free from his dimension into ours.

[zerotohiro]

Sounds like an actual mastermind. [And a real nightmare to be honest.] Considering Ford was in a whole other dimension that doesn't surprise me that a rift was created. Does that mean that Bill was from an entirely other dimension too? What was wrong with his that he wanted to come into ours?

[cryptologic]

Yeah. From the Nightmare Realm. [ No really, a literal nightmare, Hiro. ] Bill basically wanted to be in our world to throw a party. The Nightmare Realm isn't on a physical plane so he couldn't directly affect our world unless he was able to enter it directly. That's why anytime he wanted to get something done, he had to possess someone. But with the rift, he could actually bridge the gap between our world and his and...well, you get the idea.

[ His tone dampens a bit. ] That might sound harmless enough, but Bill's idea of a party was sort of...detrimental to all of humanity. He started the Weirdmageddon.

[zerotohiro]

...Weirdmageddon. Is that an actual thing or are you just joking? [Dipper...he was hoping you'd be his semi-normal friend. This apparently was a large, vast hope.] Okay. So Weirdmageddon because some bored psycho wanted to hold a nightmare party. How'd you guys stop him?

[cryptologic]

It's definitely an actual thing. At least, that's what my uncle named it, and if you saw it, you'd be calling it that, too. [ No, really, Hiro, Dipper is definitely not your semi-normal friend. ]

We had to rescue Mabel first. Bill captured her in prison bubble when the apocalypse started. We were...kind of in a fight when it all went down so Bill used that to his advantage and kept us separated.

[zerotohiro]

[...buddy.] Why didn't Bill just kidnap you instead? What makes Mabel special? I mean don't get me wrong, your sister's fine, but--dude, when you were gone we made it rain candy. What does that tell you?

[cryptologic]

If it makes you feel any better, he sent some of his goons to eat me? [ Dipper, that should make no one feel better. ]

Both times we'd faced Bill before, Mabel played a huge part in taking him down. He honestly probably felt more threatened by her because he'd been able to trick me pretty easily before. [ He'll be the first to admit it. ] Her prison bubble wasn't just a jail cell, either. Inside of it was basically like...Mabel utopia. He created a place he thought she'd never want to leave, but we got her to come with us.

[zerotohiro]

That. Totally makes me feel better, you're right. [Dipper come on.] I'm scared to imagine what Mabel utopia would be like but if he was a demon he probably could have made it into something really, really big.

[He's gracefully glossing over Dipper being easy to trick, at least.] So...the entire Pines family helped take out Bill? What happened to Gravity Falls in the end?

[cryptologic]

[ You're a good bro, Hiro. ] Yeah. My grunkles used the old bait-and-switch and we erased Stan's mind and Bill along with it - long story, he got better. [ Abbreviation of the century. ] Gravity Falls was trapped inside this...weirdness bubble. I guess it explains why all the crazy stuff happened right in that town. When we erased Bill, we erased the Weirdmageddon, too, and all the damage basically reversed itself. Everything went back to normal.

[ Maybe a little too tidily, but hey, Dipper wasn't complaining. ]

[zerotohiro]

[The longer Dipper talks, the higher Hiro's eyebrows crawl up his forehead until they sort of disappear behind his bangs because this is wild. How is this even possible?]

You know, if we weren't friends and I didn't trust you so much I'd say that you're absolutely making all of this up. [Unbelievable.] So...Gravity Falls is now just this calm, quiet place and you and Mabel get to actually have normal lives again. There's no chance of Bill coming back somehow or anything right? All of his...everything was erased?

[cryptologic]

Honestly, I wouldn't believe me, either. [ It's pretty wild, and Dipper didn't even mention the UFO under the town. There's plenty more where that came from, Hiro. ]

As far as we know. He couldn't have escaped back to his universe, so if he's out there anywhere still, it's...limbo or something, I guess. But I don't think he's going to be causing trouble anytime soon.

[zerotohiro]

Cool...now your biggest problem is worrying about all the stuff going on here. At least facing the apocalypse should make all of this look like a piece of cake.

[A pause.] You know this proves my three days theory right, right?

[cryptologic]

It's definitely changed my perspective a bit.

[ Making it through the end of the world kind of does that to a person.

A half-grin: ] I thought theories could only be proved false. But hey, it's another piece of evidence in your case.

[zerotohiro]

Normally that's true, but when a lot of people don't take you seriously at first you have to prove yourself right more than anything. [People kinda suck.] But it's definitely another piece. Ruby, Yang, Weiss, Jaune and Yu were all gone only three days, too. Same with Mikleo and Sorey before they disappeared completely. And you didn't remember anything about this place while you were gone, did you?

[cryptologic]

[ A quick shake of the head. ] Not at all. It's almost like they put me on pause here for three days while I got to go live out the rest of the summer.

[ But why three days? Was there any significance? ] Why does it only happen to some of us, though?

[zerotohiro]

And why does the amount of time we spend "at home" vary even if we're all gone for only three days? Those are the questions I don't really have answers to yet. Do you think there's even really an answer?

[cryptologic]

There has to be. I mean, there must be some reason why we're pulled in at the times that we are. Like...I don't know. Maybe they're defining moments in our lives that are easier for CERES to pick up the code for, instead of day-to-day minutia.

[zerotohiro]

I don't know about that. I was living the day to day stuff when I got pulled here. When people leave and come back, definitely, but when we first get here? I don't think there's enough evidence for that one.

Wonder who we could even ask? [...but he shakes his head.] Maybe it's something we should worry about later. You did just get back. You're probably still getting used to being here huh?