Mabel Pines

"Mystery Twins."

Apparently one of the new facets of their strange being was that their fistbumps were accompanied by the sounds of synth-keyboard explosions and a slight rain of glittering stars.

(As a consequence, Mabel looked constantly for excuses to fistbump.)

"We'd better get a ton of spray paint."

And rock salt. Rock salt seemed to work for them well.

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"To the grocery store!" Dipper said boldly. "Or someone's pantry! Preferably the last one so we don't have to shoplift!"

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"How do you lure a Jersey Devil anyway?" Mabel asked, as she and Dipper and Allayna (minus the rest of the corporeal kids) raided Allayna's garage. "I mean, obviously we're going to trap him, right?"

Spray paint was great for making trap circles, something the book was helpfully full of.

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"Let me see..." Dipper said, looking into the book. "Apparently, it used to go after livestock, especially chickens. Maybe we can use some as bait?"

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"Where are we going to get a chicken?" Mabel asked.

"I think we have some chicken nuggets in the freezer," Allayna volunteered.

Minutes later, armed with the spraypaint, rock salt, and thawing chicken nuggets, they returned to the group of kids.

"Ready? Great," Kevin said, as Allayna pushed the damp bag into his hands. "We better get going. I have to be home by 6."

"Don't worry," Mabel said, "We'll just go set up the trap and then you guys can go home. Jersey Devils are probably still sleeping all that roof-climbing off at this time, right Dipper? We'll stick around and trap it, since we don't need to eat. Or sleep."

Privately, Mabel almost longed for hunger, and food to satisfy it with, and tiredness and the bed that went with being mortal enough to feel tired.

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"Aww but why can't we come?" Kevin asked. "If it's real, I wanna see it. I mean, it'd be a real, live monster."

"No way," said Dipper. "It's too dangerous. If you want to see it, give me a camera and I can try to take a picture for you, but it's not safe for any of you to get too close, especially since it supposedly goes after kids."

Edited Date: 2013-10-17 04:36 am (UTC)

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"YOU'RE kids," Kevin objected.

"GHOST kids," Mabel corrected. "With magic rainbow kitten powers. Womp!"

She fired off a set of rainbow kitten fists, partly because she needed the distraction from thoughts of being a ghost, partly just because she never missed an opportunity to shoot off her kitten fists.

"Seriously, we got this. Mystery Twins, on the case."

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"We'll let you guys know how it goes, okay?" Dipper promised them. "C'mon, Mabel, we need to put these out in the sun so they thaw out."

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Out in the woods, with the chicken nuggets thawing in the sun and the improvised Jersey Devil's Trap spray painted on the dirt formerly covered by loads of dropped pine needles, Mabel carefully replaced the covering concealing the trap.

"If it's really fearlings, and not actually the Jersey Devil, should one of us be bait too? Just in case those don't look delicious after all." She gestured to the chicken nuggets.

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"I kind of figure that by just standing around, waiting for the trap to be sprung we're both going to be bait," said Dipper, putting the book away in his vest pocket now that they'd put up all the markings that they needed to.

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Unfortunately - or not, in actuality - all the chicken had drawn out so far was an orange cat, or so it seemed. The cat had been tailing them for a time now, opting for now to reveal itself now that the other kids were gone. And now that Dipper and Mabel had decided to try and bait the Jersey Devil.

This is probably not what Diana had in mind when she'd told him to get closer with humanity, but it's not like he had much of a choice at this point.

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"Mr. Fuzzlebutt! You came to help!"

The kids had noticed the cat before. And naturally, Mabel had named it.

She darted over to scoop the cat up. "Look, Dipper! Mr. Fuzzlebutt came to help us catch the Jersey Devil! What a brave widdle kitty - Dipper, say hi to the brave widdle kitty."

Concerned that Dipper was not paying Mabel's favorite feline tagalong enough attention, she held the cat out to him - close enough to squish the cat's face against Dipper's cheek.

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Dipper backed away, mostly because Mabel held a lot of fuzzy creatures in his face and never seemed to really have concern about things like mange. Or rabies.

As he looked at the cat, his eyebrows knitted in concern.

"What's he doing all the way out here? It's not even like he could have followed us. You flew us."

Edited Date: 2013-10-18 10:01 pm (UTC)

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"Maaaaaooooow."

The look on the cat's face was somewhere between completely innocent and 'oh god please save me from this indignity, Dipper'. Because rescuing this cat from your sister is totally more of a priority than wondering how he got here.

Spoilers, it is due to mind powers and the fact that Mabel isn't the only one who can fly, but let's just chalk it up to regular old Cats Defy Physics.

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"It's because he's such a brave widdle kitty," said Mabel, with a hint of a "duh" as she bumped the cat's face against Dipper's once more. And then again.

Fortunately for Mr. Fuzzlebutt, once Mabel tired of shoving the cat in Dipper's face, she cradled him and started scratching his head with absentminded, but gentle affection. "Okay, so, symbols all painted? Traps all covered? Now we wait?"

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"Yeah... yeah," Dipper said, still eyeing the cat. "Now we wait."

Cue scurrying into some nearby bushes.

Even if J'onn didn't have a cat's sense of smell, he still would have been the first to notice something coming. Two minds.

Innocent, though. They had no ill intentions for anyone, only curiosity.

This was because they were children.

Unlike the other kids, Allayna and Kevin had decided to tag along, and so they'd wandered through the woods in the direction Dipper and Mabel had flown off in.

"Do you hear that?" Dipper whispered to his sister. "Something in the underbrush."

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Oh, no. The children from before. This doesn't bode well, on the off chance something actually happens. Clearly, it's time to think up a plan of action, consider every possible thing that could happen, and figure out how he might be able to protect all four of the kids.

...on the other hand, scratchies.

Wait. No. No, that won't do. In his experience, cats don't warm up that easily to people. And, well. If he idled like this too long, that might make things awkward if he has to reveal himself later. J'onn twists and wriggles, using catlike ~~status as a fluid~~agility to worm his way out of Mabel's hold, and move off into a different part of the bushes.

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"Wait, Mr. Fuzzlebutt, come back!" Mabel dropped to her knees to roll despondently in the pine needles. "I love you!"

But she switched back to a rare serious mode when she saw the other kids. "Oh no! You guys, you can't be here!"

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"We just wanted to help!" Allayna said.

"And to see the Jersey Devil!" added Kevin.

"You guys need to get out of here," Dipper said. "It's not safe. Any minute now -"

A long, loud, terrible screech rended the air, seeming to come from everywhere at once.

" - that could happen."

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Well, looks like there's going to be some awkwardness if he reveals himself whether J'onn likes it or not.

He freezes, though, when he hears that screeching noise. His tail foofs up, and then he darts up a tree to try and get a better view of things.

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