#mgucket

I am not on AO3, and do not plan to make an account because truth be told I am terrible at writing out/updating full stories, so I am unlikely to actually write the fic myself. But it's been in my head for a while so I thought I would post an abriveted version here to see what people think.

So the premise is that it's Dipper and Mabel's first winter break since their parents split. The parents custody agreement lets the kids pick who they spend the holiday with this year. To get out of the crazy tug-o-war match their parents were playing with them, both twins said they want to go back ​to Gravity Falls. Stan and Ford have come for the holidays as well.

It starts with everyone doing their own thing. Abulita is cooking. Soos and Melody are decorating the shack and making weird and supposedly "holiday themed" attractions. Ford is off in the woods hunting winter anomalies. Stan is sleeping in his chair, yelling random things whenever he gets woken up. After Weirdmageddon Wendy's family decided against apocalypse training this year. Instead they are busy chopping down trees and carving logs into wooden totems, figures, and toys for towns folks. Everybody plans to meet up at Mugucket's place for a "Yippidy Big Hoedown celebration" that he is throwing. Advertisement says that the gates will not close for anyone.

Mabel has spent the past couple days making holiday craft gifts with Candy and Grenda and the day before the party they are both to busy to come over, so she finally has a chance to buy supplies and work on their gifts. Dipper has bought most of his gifts, but he is stuck on what would be the perfect gift to get for Wendy, so he goes to the store with Mabel to look for ideas. While walking back to the shack they run into Pacifica and Lazy Susan who are both carrying large cardboard boxes. Pacifica shouts something along the lines of "Hey look what blew into town", before heading over to them. Mabel and Dipper say "hey" and ask her what is in the boxes. Pacifica and Lazy Susan set the box down and there are 7 cats and kittens between the two. Pacifica says that she has started volunteering at the animal shelter with Lazy Susan, and things are getting pretty crowded. They are hoping to find these guys homes for the holidays. Dipper and Mabel want to help.

Pacifica and Lazy Susan explain to them that the box with 4 cats (1 adult 3 kittens) are strays who there just aren't enough room for to stay at the shelter long term, and the other box has 3 (2 adults 1 kitten) that the shelter has been struggling to find homes for as they are frequintly rejected by adopters. In that box sits a one eyed, large toothed, messy pelted, void. A ginger cat with an abnormailty: two tails instead of one (this cat can possibly fly by spinning its tails, but only when no one is looking), and a white furred blue eyed kitten. The white kitten climbs out of the box to pounce on Dipper's shoe and rubs against him when he goes to pick it up. Dipper takes an immediate liking to this kitten and asks why it's having a hard time getting chosen. Lazy Susan tells Dipper that the kitten is completly deaf.

While Dipper is looking deaf kitten Mabel is looking at the one eyed void. Pacifica says adopters are scared of him after Bill. Mabel then shoots up saying she knows someone who likes scary stuffy, before running into a shop. She comes back a few minutes later dragging Robbie by the arm; Tambry is following behind them. Robbie says that he does not want a cat as a pet. He already has his tarantula, and cats and spiders don't get along. Mabel doesn't give up though. She asks Robbie if his parents like cats. He admits that "they do". She tells him that he should get the cat as a present for his parents. It would be ​a great mascot for their service, could catch any mice or rats in their house (Robbie demands to know how Mabel knows they have mice). Then tells a white lie to Robbie that "just for him" the cat is half off the regular adopters fee (Pacifica had told them all the rejected cats were) "if he and Tambry make and send out a post about the cats looking for homes". Tammy tells Robbie they should get the cat because they need a gift for his parents. His tarantula stays inside his room, so as long as he keeps his door shut the cat won't find it. Robbie and Tambry agree to her deal.

We then get a montage of the twins trying to convince different people to adopt the cats. Dipper has no luck. He takes the 2 tailed one into the forest to see Grunkle Ford and asks him to adopt it. He says weird, which makes it like he and Grunkle Ford. Then Dipper asks if Ford knew that in many ancient cultures ship crews brought cats on board as pest control and good luck charms. Ford tells Dipper that luck is superstion and he does not think Stan would agree to have a weird cat on the boat with them. Then he turns back to his hunt.

Dipper asks Soos and Melody if they would adopt one of the cats. But they tell him that they cannot afford two vet bills, what with Gompers getting older and starting to have more needs. Dipper goes to Mgucket thinking that since he is rich and loves animals they can convince him to adopt all the cats. Mgucket likes the cats and starts to say yes, but Tate comes down and says that they have enough pets, after his dad brought all the stray animals from the dump to live with them. So Dipper needs to take the cats away. Mgucket frowns but agrees with Tate.

Mabel however is really good matching people and pets. She gets Nate and Lee to adopt a pair of kittens that they see wrestle. Blubs and Durland adopt a kitten that she holds up to their faces and tells them how it needs a couple of dads. ​​​​Lastly she gets Toby Determined to adopt an adult cat after brutally telling him that no makeover will convince Sandra Hortenez to date him, but hey studies show that cats improve loneliness. Pretty soon they are left with just the two tailed cat and the deaf ​kitten, which they end up taking with them to the party at Mguckets. Maybe they can find adopters there.

At the party Stan comes up to Dipper and says that he heard Dipper tried to sell Ford a mutant cat, and Ford told him no. Dipper nods. Stan then says that he is disappointed at Dipper for giving up a sale after only the first hesitation. Then he says that he actually has no issues bringing a only sorta freaky cat on his and Ford's sailing adventures. Next Mgucket comes bounding up to Dipper saying that because of him he keeps thinking about all those animals in the shelter, and if he cannot offer them a home then he wants to at least offer them a meal. So he is going to write a huge check to the animal shelter to buy food and beds for the animals. Lastly Soos and Melody come up to say that they think its really great that the twins are taking an interest in helping homeless pets. They want to set up a donation sign and collection box at The Mystery Shack for the shelter now.

Mabel and Pacifica (she is with them at the party) start jumping up and down​, Pacifica runs to go tell Lazy Susan, and Mabel tells Dipper that this proves he did a good job asking the right people about the cats. Dipper looks at the white kitten who is all that is left now, starts petting it, and sadly laments that he could not find it a home. Mabel says that since Dipper likes this kitten they should take it home with them. Dipper reminds her ​how mad their parents were when she brought Waddles home. Mabel reminds him that their parents calmed down once they learned Waddles was fully hosue trained, and that since she got him registered as an emotional support pet the landlords have to be fine with him too. What if they say that the kitten is Dippers emotional support pet. Dipper thinks about it for a moment then says that between honners class he is taking, and the two clubs he joined to improve his social life, and looking for oddities around their home town he does not have enough time for a pet.

♡ : Is there a certain scent that brings about nostalgia? If so, describe a memory this scent brings back.

Oh my gosh ok so what if scents can like counter the effects of the memory gun? Isn’t it true that your sense of smell is the strongest one linked to your memories (or did I make that up?? I thought I read that somewhere idk) but what if that’s how McGucket is able to kind of start remembering things

Take for instance the Gobblewonker, which McGucket is able to recreate almost perfectly in robot-form after having erased it from his memory 30 years before. Tate works at the lake now, so what if one day McGucket went down to visit and got a whiff of that lake smell you know the one I mean like humidity mixed with salt water mixed with fish and all that other summery stuff and the smell brought him back to that day - thus, the inspiration for the Gobblewonker robot. He may not have even realized it was a real memory, because let’s be real his mind’s a little broken. 

And okay it’s gonna get a little shippy now - as he was flipping through Ford’s journals he made a comment about how everything was coming back to him now in bits and pieces - what if Ford’s handwriting + the journal itself + potentially the smell of the journal? were what was triggering those memories. Like obviously smelly little 12yo Dipper has had the journal for awhile and before that it was buried in the ground but what if it somehow still had like a musty basement smell or something that reminded Fidds of working on the portal and everything. 

And there’s probably other stuff too like what if every time he smells baby powder he can remember being a new father and playing with baby Tate. Or if every time he goes to the Mystery Shack the smell of it is so familiar he just feels safe and happy because that’s how he was with Ford - driven by the thought of helping people, before he knew the real risk. The smell of patchouli probably brings him back to his and Ford’s college days.