SotF Chapter 3 Snippet #5

Chapter 3: Troubles of a Shooting Star

It took five minutes to get to the ice cream stand, a little cart called "Eye Scream Cones (Now With Less Eyes!)" that had a somewhat disturbing picture of a sentient street cone with a massive eye on its face, screaming as the mouth of a person took a bite out of its head, what looked like mint chocolate "blood" leaking from its massive wound.

The man that owned the shop had been dressed in a pale yellow, American ice-cream uniform, had a fake glass eye, and had a smile that stretched from the ends of his face and showed off all his teeth. It was actually rather intense, and Yugi did not miss how said smile seemed to twitch every now and then. He tried his best to keep his discomfort from showing as he bought the ice cream for both Mabel and himself, after Mabel insisted he buy something for himself since "eating overly sweet deserts with friends is a blast!"

Now, sitting on a nearby bench, his backpack off his shoulders to his side, travel bag between his knees, Yugi Muto stared as Mabel licked her ice cream. It was something called a "Nether Rainbow", which just looked like a somewhat dark rainbow—he didn't know what flavor, as Mabel had just described it as "nightmarish yet very sweet," so he was just going to assume licorice for now—next to a scoop of strawberry and chocolate.

Yugi had gotten vanilla. Which was a perfectly respectable flavor. Mabel had even said so.

...It was probably a bad sign he sounded so defensive of his choice even in his own mind.

Regardless, Mabel was once again smiling as she enjoyed her ice cream. Yugi smiled as well, taking a lick of his ice cream. "Enjoying yourself?" he asked.

"Heck yeah!" Mabel shouted, turning around to give him a wide smile dripping with ice cream. "This ice cream is the best! It's as delicious as the name is mildly disturbing." Oh, so it wasn't just him that thought so. "There's nothing like some desert for lunch to really get the good old brain going." She took a bite out of all three scoops, and then her eyes went wide as she moaned. "Ah, brain freeze, brain freeze!" Her eyes clenched shut and other hand went to rub her temple.

Yugi couldn't help but chuckle. Mabel's antics were something that made him laugh more since...a while now, really.

"Ugh," Mabel said, slowly opening her eyes. "Brain, how could you betray me? After I said such nice things about you!" She glared at her forehead. "You're not getting the water you need to function and keep me alive any time soon, little missy!"

"I wouldn't recommend that," Yugi said, still smiling. "Besides, isn't it more the ice cream's fault than your brain's?"

Mabel gasped. "How could ice cream ever hurt you?! It's full of dreams, hope, harmful food coloring, and a dangerous amount of sugar. How could that be anything but wonderful?"

"Oh, my apologies," Yugi said, raising his hand in surrender. "You're right. Ice cream is wonderful."

"Yes it is," Mabel said, expression suddenly grave, hands on her hips. "Always respect the cream." She thrust her cone forward, inches away from his face. "Always."

Another chuckle. "Alright, I will," he promised.

"Good," she said with a nod, eyes looking to her ice cream for a moment, before they just as quickly looked back at him, brows furrowing. "Hey, how come I haven't met you until now? I would've remembered seeing someone with such fabulous hair, and definitely would've talked to the moment I did."

"I actually just arrived today."

"No way!" Mabel shouted. "Then I'm the first person you met?"

"Yes, you are," he said.

"Well then, let me welcome you to the wonderfully colorful, wholesome, and all around great town"—she stood up, spreading her arms wide and shaking her hands in glee— "of Gravity Falls!"

With the sun positioned just so behind her head, the town right behind her wide, energetic face, if someone had taken a picture her of at that moment, it probably would've made a great postcard. But only for that exact moment.

Because in the next second, McGucket, wrestling with Sprott, both punching the other repeatedly with viciousness of a pair of wild animals like some kind of wild raccoon, rolled in like a tumbleweed along the street right behind Mabel. The two police officers from before quickly tried to catch them, and the crowd was just behind them, still cheering and whopping. Eventually, all of them vanished down the street, and the only sign they were there was McGucket's echoing scream of, "MA COIN!"

Yugi stared at Mabel.

"Ignore that," Mabel said, still smiling.

Yugi looked at the street the mob vanished down, noticing how no one on the street so much as gave the mob a second glance. "Are street fights and mobs a common occurrence here?"

"Street fights? No; at least, not outside Rough 'Em Up Tuesdays." Was that some American holiday he wasn't aware of? "Mobs? Eh...it depends."

"It depends?" He blinked. "On what?"

"On whatever bad-guy of the week is—you know what, that's not important!" Mabel suddenly laughed, just a touch forcefully, and Yugi felt like this was something very important. "Just know that there is nothing here that would make any sane person run and never look back!"

Yugi kept staring. He was very tempted to ask what she was talking about, but, going by how she didn't seem to take the, apparently, frequent mobs as a bad thing, or even something mildly concerning, he would let it the issue rest. For now. If later it turned out to be a problem, he'd deal with it. Worse case, in the same way his partner would've back when they first met.

He really hoped it didn't come to the worse case.

For now, he was gonna do his best to help this little girl with whatever was troubling her.

"You sound like you know quite a lot about this town," Yugi said.

"You bet I do!" Mabel shouted with a grin. "Been here since summer started, and I think I can say I'm something of an expert here. All the little corner stores no one knows exist that have the best snacks, to the boutiques to go to when you wanna change your style but our on a budget, and to the spas all the bikers in this town go to when they want to have a 'Me-Day,' I know everything this is to know about this place! At least, the important stuff."

He smiled. "You must have a lot of fun here with your friends."

"Heck yeah I do! They're the best," she said, no hesitation whatsoever in her voice, and not a hint of the bitterness that he had seen before. So, it wasn't her friends she was upset about. But maybe...she mentioned that she wasn't about to ask "the jerk" to come with her to town. Almost like this "jerk" was already at her home.

"You said you're here with your Gruk—with your guk—your great uncle, right?" The word was really tripping him up.

"Yep!"

"And is he the only one taking care of you?"

"Basically. Well, Soos too whenever he's around; he's kinda like my uncle. Except he's the one we actually talk about."

So, it wasn't whoever was taking care of her she was upset at. And if it wasn't an adult, then...

"Is it just you that's living with your uncle?" Yugi asked, and waited. He didn't have to wait long.

Mabel immediately scowled, face twisting with anger. "Yeah," she practically spat out, crossing her arms as she glanced away. "Just me." That was a lie if he ever heard one.

"Really?" he asked.

"I said so, didn't I?" she said, scowl deepening as she kept looking away.

"You did," Yugi said, and then nothing else.

Neither them spoke for a while, the only sound the footsteps of passerby around them, and a cool breeze that smelled of leaves.

"But, hypothetically," Mabel began, still not facing him. "If I did live with someone, and that someone was just being a huge, stupid jerk...would you get it if I didn't really want to talk about him right now?"

"I would," Yugi said, putting as much sympathy he could into his voice. "But, at the same time, if you hypothetically did have troubles with someone you were living with, then at some point, you're going to have to face them again. You know that, right?"

Mabel said nothing.

"And it might be best to figure out how you're going to deal with that person sooner rather than later," he continued. "As unpleasant as it might be. Especially if this person is..." He trailed off for a moment, trying to figure out how to phrase it. "Dangerous?"

Mabel snorted. "Dipper's as dangerous as a stack of tofu."

Dipper. So that was the "jerk's" name.  And, she sounded like she truly believed he wasn't dangerous.

Yugi frowned slightly. He took a moment to consider what he should say next.

“Well, if you truly don’t want to talk to him, we don’t have to,” Yugi said. “But…” he purposefully trailed off.