#apersonificationofgravityfalls

He’s going to stay at my house for a while. -Temperance

The note on Humility’s door made the twins somewhat confused because of the overall brevity of it. While they had known the Virtue who wrote it was rather laconic in his speaking manner, the explanation— more specifically, the lack thereof— of what had to happen to justify the striped Virtue all of a sudden being under Temperance’s custody was the thing that made them scratch their heads.

Regardless, both Dipper and Mabel seemed to silently agree that whatever had happened, they needed to know (however in the former’s case, the decision was made reluctantly and at his sister’s behest).

They had finally reached the clearing where Temperance’s small cottage-house was, and as they were near the front door both Dipper and Mabel knocked on the door at the same time— the former slowly, the latter practically bashing the aging wood.

Eventually, the door opened by just a sliver to reveal Humility behind it, his stripes threatening to make all but his head invisible. “H— hello?” he stuttered, before looking down to the both of them and visibly relaxing. His stripes receded like an erratic tide to reveal more of his body. “Ah! Mabel, Dipper, what brings you here?”

“We were gonna ask you the same question, haha!” the girl said in a conversational tone.

Somehow, the striped Virtue’s face seemed to grow more pale as he nodded numbly.

“Ah, you two,” a voice rang out, which caused Mabel to do a double take at Humility, thinking the voice came from him despite the fact that the voice was much deeper than what usually came out of the mouth of the blue-eyed Virtue’s.

The owner of the voice— Temperance— was looming over Humility. “Why are you here?” he asked.

“We’re here to see if Humility’s alright,” Dipper said briskly, earning a look from Mabel as a result. “We saw the note.”

Temperance’s shoulders seemed to give way by only a few millimeters at the reply. “Of course,” he said as he ushered the twins in and closed the door behind them. The both of them sat on their usual respective sitting chair whenever they visited Temperance.

There was a moment of silence before Mabel spoke up to break it. “So, uh, did you guys have… a slumber party or somethin’?” she asked innocently, hoping that whatever the reason was, it wasn’t serious.

The golden Virtue just shut his eyes more tightly at the comment, which was essentially the equivalent of a confused glance.

“Really, Mabel,” the boy said flatly.

The brunette shrugged. “Well, someone’s gotta be the optimist here!” she replied.

Humility scratched the back of his head, deciding to entertain the girl’s thought, if only for a moment. “To be fair, I have technically stayed here overnight, so in a way it… sort of was like a slumber party.”

Mabel grinned, her braces glinting against the light from the window. “See?” she said cheekily to her brother.

Dipper rolled his eyes in exasperation. “Right. Sure. But the question still stands— what happened?” he asked as he looked over to Humility.

The blue-eyed Virtue looked away with an uncertain look on on his face, his stripes moving erratically to the flux of his emotions. “Nothing. Nothing has happened.”

Mabel leaned back on the chair, looking at Humility with a raised eyebrow. “I can barely see you but I know you’re lying,” she said with a frown. “W— we’re all friends here, right? You can tell us.”

“Friends?” the smaller Virtue echoed.

“Alright, well maybe friend-quaintance is a better word,” Mabel added hastily, thinking that perhaps calling them friends was perhaps too big a step for the Virtue.

The striped Virtue shook his head with a small smile on his face. “No, no, ‘friend’ is fine…” he replied. “But I would rather not get the both of you roped up in our issues—”

The brunet sighed quietly and sank down in his chair. “No offense, Humility, but that already happened,” Dipper interjected acidly as he glared at Temperance.

The golden Virtue in question merely clenched his jaw at the tone.

Humility looked at the boy, then back to his own brother, realizing the shift in mood. “…Temperance…?” he ventured.

The named Virtue crossed his arms, his lips a tight line. “I thought you came here to see what happened to Humility,” he said stiffly as he looked down at the boy.

“Bro, Temperance does have a point,” Mabel leaned forward, finally deciding to intervene and hopefully diffuse the tense moment.

“You’re taking his side?” Dipper said increduously.

The girl groaned in exasperation. “I’m not taking anyone’s side— I’m just repeating what we agreed to do today!”

Again, silence overtook the next few moments as all parties needed to simmer down.

The gaps on the striped Virtue was threatening to overtake him as he looked over to the boy and his brother. Fidgeting for a moment, he looked over at Mabel, who thankfully was also as confused and troubled as he was.

“Did I… did I say something wrong?” he asked quietly.

The girl turned back to him with a reassuring look. “What? No!” she replied, patting the side of the disappearing Virtue’s arm. “No, you’re fine. Dipper’s just being a huge grumpus.”