Fandom Little Town in Roadkill County

[sionnach]

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Loretta was supposed to be getting out more.

That was the advice her therapist had given her. To get out into the town more often, to try and socialize, rather then keeping herself tucked away where nobody could see her. It was supposed to help her grow past her anxiety, and get more comfortable existing in the public sphere. She'd chosen to get lunch at Greasy's Diner instead of making herself a salad at home, like she usually did, for that exact reason. There was no point going to therapy, after all, if she didn't at least try the advice the gave her. Loretta fidgeted with her fingers, sinking a little lower in the booth. It didn't seem to be working so far. The bell over the door chimed somewhere behind Loretta, and the patter of a few sets of feet indicated a pair of new arrivals.

"Hey, Lori."

A small smile blossomed on Loretta's lips at the familiar voice, and before she could even turn, the speaker had reached her booth. Though lacking the usual presence of his twin sister at his side, Dipper Pines otherwise looked much the same, his pine tree hat reliably pulled down low over his forehead and what appeared to be a small notebook clutched in his hands. The only truly unusual part of the scene was the man they seemed to have brought with them, outfitted with thick-rimmed glasses and a dark red turtleneck. He looked remarkably like their great uncle Stan, though Loretta had trouble believing Stan would be caught dead wearing anything that understated and sensible.

"Hey, kiddo," Loretta greeted fondly, picking at her fingernails, "Got the day off from adventuring?" The answer that followed honestly came too fast for Loretta to register—this was, on occasion, a problem she faced when it came to the twins, who could both be lovable little chatterboxes when they got excited—but still, she nodded and smiled encouragingly, her gaze absently flickering past Dipper and up to the man. Loretta was startled to find him looking at her, and her shoulders tensed, just slightly. She didn't like being watched. "You alright, mister?" Loretta asked lightly, trying not to sound as nervous as she felt, and tilted her head with a hesitant smile, "You look like you've seen a ghost."

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It was the perfect plan.

Mabel had planned it all down to the last detail, conspiring with Grenda and Candy in the corner of the giftshop a few days earlier. She'd drag Dipper and her Grunkle Ford out of the house for lunch, insisting that they all eat together at Greasy's while Grunkle Stan was giving his first tour since the whole portal incident. Then, while they were out, she'd just so happen to spot Candy and Grenda out on the town, and excuse herself to go visit with them. Once they were all together, they'd run over the game plan, then split up to do a little reconnaissance. In one fell swoop, she'd get Grunkle Stanford out of the house for a while, give Dipper a chance to spend a little time with his idol, and get the answers she'd been looking for! Kill three birds with one stone! (Though honestly, Mabel had always disliked that saying. Wouldn't it be more pleasant to say you'd frosted three cookies with one bag, or pet three puppies with one hand?)

The one downside to her otherwise flawless scheme? How utterly boring reconnaissance was turning out to be. Mabel pouted, kicking a pebble down the sidewalk as she went. It always looked so much more exciting in all the spy movies her dad liked to watch. All she wanted was to get a little more info on the new Northwest that seemed to have popped into existence out of nowhere. Despite Dipper's rolled eyes and quick dismissal, Mabel considered it to be a mystery worth investigating. Where had she come from? How had Mabel not been aware of her existence before? Why did she seem so different from her family, with their perfectly styled hair and wide, phony smiles? Mabel had always been the curious sort—some even may call her nosy—and now that her interest had been piqued, she wasn't going to be able to rest until she got answers.

Mabel rounded a corner, and nearly plowed straight into another figure. With a small, startled squeak, Mabel jumped back just in time, and looked up to apologize—only to find herself face to face with the very same person she was supposed to be gathering intel on. Oh. It appeared that, in all of her careful planning, there was one variable Mabel had forgot to consider, and that was the possibility that she may actually meet Astoria. And interact with her. Fortunately, unlike her brother, who needed contingency plan after contingency plan, Mabel thrived on spontaneity.

"Oh!" she gasped, face lighting up in a smile as she clasped her hands together, "You're Astoria Northwest! I was just looking for you!" Because that's not creepy at all, Mabel.

 

[TarantulaHawk]

“If you lack the humility to go back and tie up the loose ends in your past, then be prepared to forever be haunted by her ghosts — all of whom will come into your present and your future." — C. Joy Bell

​

He wasn't sure how he felt about this, honestly. Stanford had a lot to do since he came out of the portal again, knowing that not only did he have a rift to find a way to properly contain and seal, but also the rest of his research needed to be picked up on and resumed - not even tacking on the thought of dismantling the portal, which he had started to do already, which was an exhausting task in itself. But when his niece and nephew practically begged him to go to the diner down the road and have breakfast, he found himself embarrassingly weak to their pleas and he gave in.

He couldn't help it. Mabel just had puppy dog eyes like no other. Which was sort of ironic, he realized once they all arrived at the diner, because she disappeared almost right as they reached the diner anyway. Where she went, he wasn't really bothered to think. She was a kid, they were resilient and he knew she was probably just exploring just as Dipper did so frequently.

And speaking of Dipper, Stanford noticed right away when the young boy started talking to a stranger sitting at a booth. His eyebrows furrowed slightly. Their voice was familiar, so he approached carefully to see if he recognized them - he'd be surprised if he did. Not many of the people he knew were around anymore.

Then he actually saw her.

After being in a different dimension for so many years, you'd think that Stanford Pines would adjust quickly to certain things. But this... this was something else. It was like he was hit by a car, just seeing the woman he loved again. But not in a way that sparked all of those sappy, warm feelings. Sure, something was there still. But she seemed so... He couldn't describe it. What had happened to her after all those years? He remembered her looking into the portal, and the guilt from it gripped his heart like a vice - it was one of the few things that remained steadfast in his memory through the years.

Stanford swallowed the knot in his throat before speaking, which did little to keep the tremble from his voice. "Loretta?"

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"I have so many different personalities in me and I still feel lonely." — Tori Amos

​

It had been about a month since her aunt died, and three weeks since Astoria moved back to Gravity Falls. It was.... a lot, honestly. It wasn't like she knew how to grieve. What did that mean, anyway? A Northwest didn't grieve. In fact, they faked a tear and then moved on and pretended nothing happened. As far as Astoria knew, there wasn't even a funeral for her aunt. If there was, she wasn't given the chance to go because as soon as her mother heard that Primula died, there was a private plane arraigned to bring her daughter home.

But that didn't make the transition easy, but any means. When she got home, her mother was instantly on top of her about her appearance and the first thing they did was fight. And it was a big one, which her father also got involved in. Astoria knew that her mom wouldn't like the fact that she cut her hair off and that she didn't have any of the expensive clothes she tried to send her, she knew that her father didn't like how she still wouldn't respond to that stupid bell. And then Pacifica decided to stick her stuck-up little nose into the fray and that was all it took for Astoria to explode on them all.

With a sigh, she shook her head. Now wasn't the time to think about it. It was a new morning and that had happened three weeks ago. She needed to move on and needed a distraction and that was exactly why she was in town. She had snuck out so that she could have a break from the garbage at home, not so that she could think about it more.

Astoria sipped at the strawberry smoothie in her hand, walking down the street. Some window shopping and binge-eating food she wasn't supposed to was exactly what she needed to do to get her mind off of things. She paused at the storefront of a small thrift shop, peering in curiously.

Though the peace didn't last when she realized someone almost ran into her. She was quick to turn, her eyebrows raising. She definitely looked like a Northwest then, putting a hand on her hip, her lips around the straw of her smoothie. Until the girl introduced herself and she then spoke.

"Oh, you." Astoria chuckled. "You're the girl that my sister has a weird vendetta against. What did you do to make her so angry?"

​

 

[sionnach]

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Loretta's brow furrowed in concern as the stranger continued to stare at her for a long moment, his expression almost unreadable, but certainly distressed. Her stomach clenched with unease, and she shifted a little in her seat, glancing at Dipper for assistance. (He had, after all, brought the man with him. Surely he'd be able to handle whatever this was.) Then, the man spoke, and Loretta blinked in surprise when he addressed her, tilting her head.

"Have—Have we met?" she asked uncertainly, unconsciously beginning to fiddle with the silver ring on her left hand. She couldn't remember how she got it. In fact, for as long as she could remember, it had existed right there on her finger. It was a slender band, intricately engraved with dozens upon dozens of small constellations. She may not have remembered how she got it, but Loretta knew it was important to her. The one time Fiddleford had tried to take it off her finger, warning her that she might lose or damage it, she'd just about broken down, unable to even explain to him why. From that day on, it had stayed on her hand, where it belonged, without fail. Whether she was swimming, or digging in the dirt, or trying her hand at soothing some magical beast, it stayed on her finger.

Dipper, to his credit, glanced between them, and seemed to quickly come to the conclusion that there was something here that was going over his head, and had the good sense to mumble something about grabbing them all coffee and head off toward the front counter. Loretta's gaze flickered after him, debating calling out that she couldn't afford a one dollar coffee on top of the pancakes she'd already ordered, and then deciding against it and turning back to the stranger.

"I'm sorry," Loretta said slowly, and gestured vaguely at her head, "I don't—I had an accident, and I have some problems with my memory." It was a coached response, one that Fiddleford had drilled into her mind, to help get her through conversations with any strangers who claimed to know her. (Never mind that she couldn't even remember what the accident itself was anymore.) There hadn't been any of those in a while. At the start, it happened all the time. People would walk up to her in town, smiling and calling her by name, only to frown when she could only look at them in confusion. Once upon a time, the explanation would earn pitying gasps and sympathetic croons of "you poor thing." These days, no one bothered to approach her. Anyone who had known her as Loretta McGucket now only knew her as Loony Lori, and, unlike Loretta, Loony Lori apparently wasn't worth their time. "What's your name? That might help jog something."

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Mabel opened her mouth, a dozen questions already ricocheting around in her mind, only to pause when Astoria spoke before she could. Huh. She hadn't considered that the curiosity could potentially go both ways, but she supposed she should've. With the rivalry that had blossomed between Mabel and Pacifica since the start of the summer, Mabel figured it probably wasn't that unlikely that Astoria had heard about her from her younger sister.

"Well, that's a bit of a long story," Mabel answered with a small huff of exasperated laughter, "There was this party at the Mystery Shack, and a crown, and we were fighting to be Party Queen through karaoke, and then there was the whole Pioneer Day debacle and the issue with Dip and I kind of exposing that your family's entire claim to fame was a sham—but that's not important!" Mabel waved her hands, as if shooing the thought away. Though Astoria seemed amused by her rivalry with Pacifica now, even Mabel, known for her truly awful jokes and bizarre non-sequiturs, wasn't socially oblivious enough to think that admitting to damaging someone's family image was a good way to start a conversation. She didn't want to drive Astoria away before she could get any answers.

"I actually wanted to talk about you!" Mabel said brightly, then quickly clarified, "Not in, like, a creepy way. I'm just super curious! I didn't know Pacifica had a sister!" She offered Astoria a sunny smile, sliding her hands into the back pockets of her denim shorts. (Considering she almost always wore her carefully knitted sweaters, regardless of the climate, she needed to even it out with more lightweight bottoms. Skirts, shorts, the ever elusive skort, always paired with a colorful pair of keds.) "Where've you been? I didn't see you at Pioneer Day," she continued inquisitively, before seeming to catch herself and shaking her head, "Wait, I should probably actually introduce myself first. I'm Mabel Pines!" She stuck out a hand for Astoria to shake, grinning from ear to ear and tilting her head. "You might've seen my bro around a bit; about this tall, blue trucker hat, probably has his face buried in some stupidly massive book? His name's Dipper."

It was instinct, by now, to introduce Dipper whenever she introduced herself, engrained so deeply into her that she couldn't help but do it even when he wasn't around. For better or for worse, they were almost always side by side, and being the more social of the two, Mabel had taken on the responsibility of ensuring Dipper was involved in most of the same conversations and outings that she was. As much as Dipper may act like he was happy to tuck himself in the corner and avoid socializing all together, Mabel knew him well enough to know that he desperately wanted to get along with and be accepted into a group, and she had taken it upon herself to try and make it happen.

 

[TarantulaHawk]

“If you lack the humility to go back and tie up the loose ends in your past, then be prepared to forever be haunted by her ghosts — all of whom will come into your present and your future." — C. Joy Bell​

Crying wasn't something that Stanford ever did, but if there was a time that anyone normal would have cried, it would have been now. In front of him was the love of his life, dropping information on him that was almost too much to handle. An accident was obvious, as her legs were nothing more than prosthetics now. And it was obvious that her mind was gone - though she said his name might jog her memory, so maybe it wasn't as permanent as he thought. But there was still a heavy feeling in his chest as he looked at her, one that made him think back to times he had tried to forget for ages. A dangerous game to play, forgetting things.

"It's... Stanford Pines, Loretta." His voice was much more choked up than he would have liked, but he couldn't seem to clear his throat enough to make it any more solid. "Ford Pines."

He could see the Loretta McGucket he remembered there, somehow, beneath the faded version that sat before him, looking rather distant from their surroundings. Or maybe that was just him feeling somewhat hopeful. The young woman who had such powerful ambition and a broad mind, a love for outer space and a warm heart that extended out to him, even when he was involved in dangerous things.

He could see her brother in the way that she looked still, too. They always looked similar, but she seemed to age well. He hadn't seen Fiddleford since his return. Was he still around, or had he...? He didn't want to think about the fact that they had all aged. It was a bitter thought, honestly.

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"I have so many different personalities in me and I still feel lonely." — Tori Amos

​

Mabel seemed beyond eager to give a brief explanation of what seemed to drive a wedge between her and Pacifica and Astoria listed with mild interest, sipping at her smoothie. That seemed... like it made a lot of sense, actually. Anyone bold enough to get in her way would be enough to piss of her little sister, let alone someone who exposed their entire family for being a bunch of liars doing, well, just that. Though the way that Mabel switched the conversation back to Astoria made the older girl raise an eyebrow and she simply stared at her hand, finishing her smoothie in one long sip before tossing it in a nearby trashcan.

"Yeah, I've seen you two around town." She confirmed, but then rolled her eyes. "and I'm not that interesting. I'm just Pacifica's older sister by like, a couple months. So.."

Astoria knew that, to someone who probably had no clue she existed (which, upon second thought, was actually the entire town), she was probably a fascinating subject. But she really didn't think that way about herself and she wasn't about to just spill her entire life story to some random chick who was curious. Although she had to admit that having someone actually curious about her and not her family was an interesting change of pace.

She looked over Mabel's outfit briefly, unable to keep herself from doing so. She noticed the shorts, but the sweater was so bright she couldn't keep her eyes off of it. "Aren't you sweating to death?"