When you’ve lived in a place as strange as Hive City for so long, your senses tend to become heightened to the slightest of differences. When something’s out of place or out of the ordinary, you have to count on being able to pick up on it right away, or it could be your life on the line. So a shuffling noise on the back porch while everyone was inside came as a concern to the young teen. It could have been an animal from the woods or something worse, but of course he’d have to be the one to investigate.  

    Dipper armed himself readily with a garbage can’s lid for a shield and broom to swat at whatever it was that was there. Not the most effective means of protection, but if it’s a raccoon gnawing through their trash, that’d likely be the most he’d need. Slowly and silently Dipper opens the door and leans outside with baited breath. He rears the broom back as he peers around the couch, and he’s almost about to swing it... until he sees that it’s a person, a kid who looked no older than himself, lounging on its filthy cushions.