The Preserve; Sunday Evening

[ihuntkillers]

Skulking about in the preserve might not really be the best idea Jasper's ever had but it'd been something he'd wanted to do for awhile now. Most of this island was a mess of wide open spaces, water and small, dark alleys that were one cigarette smoking guy in a trench coat away from a film noir.

Comments

[rhymeswithtable]

It was an excellent evening for - what? For exploring! Mabel had knitted about fifteen thousand sweaters by now, and Waddles was napping back in her room, so she'd decided to put her adventuring skills to good use tonight by going for a walk in the preserve to check out the little green deer she'd heard about.

So, here she was, armed with a camera and a backpack that was mostly just holding her grappling hook, wearing a sweater with a funny-looking owl on it, and... mostly just wandering around lost. It was dark. Did deer even do things in the dark?

Well, too late for that now. Maybe she could find some other elusive Fandom species of the nocturnal persuasion, like a--

"Hi!"

-- Like an elusive 'guy against a tree.' Those were pretty rare this time of year.

[rhymeswithtable]

"All of it," Mabel agreed, smiling and shrugging her shoulders. "I mean, it was a couple of years ago, but we're used to some pretty weird stuff. The office moose is nothing in comparison."

[ihuntkillers]

"That why you're here?" he asked, somewhat curious. "Because it's weird?"

[rhymeswithtable]

"I'm not sure," Mabel admitted, frowning a little. "That was the other reason we were trying to get into the files in the office. We went to Oregon to try to figure out this big chunk of a summer a couple of years back that my brother and I just can't remember at all, and... mostly we just fell into the bottomless pit, which dropped us off here."

You'd get used to the crazy talk, Jasper. Or you wouldn't. Either way, Mabel wasn't going to stop with it. Ever.

"We thought maybe there would be something in the files to tell us why we wound up here."

[ihuntkillers]

"And there wasn't?" he guessed, raising an eyebrow.

[rhymeswithtable]

"There was a moose," Mabel replied, as if that explained everything.

It sort of did. You try getting past an office moose when it was trying to woo your twin brother.

[ihuntkillers]

"Right. Moose." He nodded like that made all the sense in the world. "Have you just tried asking someone in the office?"

[rhymeswithtable]

"That was going to be Plan B," Mabel replied. "I just have to wait until Dipper runs through everything on his crazy list before I can go do it the sensible way."

Mabel had learned long ago that it was generally best to let Dipper get the list thing out of his system.

"So, what about you? You don't seem like the kind of person to come to a place like this for the crazy. Or for the moose."

[ihuntkillers]

"Had no idea this place was like that," he admitted, shaking his head. "I'm here because I grew out of my old school. Small town, small school..."

He shrugged. He wanted to go back but that wasn't happening right now.

"It's a small town. They didn't have a high school."

Lie.

[rhymeswithtable]

"Huh." Gullible. "You know, I never did understand that. Why would a town with an elementary and a junior high not have a high school? It isn't like the kids that went to the first two just stop existing or something. Um. Typically."

Anything was possible, Mabel supposed.

[ihuntkillers]

"Probably ran out of money or something," he replied easily. "We're not a rich town. No big thing that puts us on any map. If anyone sticks around long enough to go to high school, they just bus out of town."

Or, in his case, out of state. "It's worked. And most people leave before then anyway."

[rhymeswithtable]

"I guess if there's nothing there to hold your interest, it makes sense," Mabel decided. "So, are you liking the island now that you're here? With all of its great... um... nature trails?"

She was going to go on and assume he was on a nature walk or something. For the sake of her own sometimes tenuous grasp on sanity.

[ihuntkillers]

"It's different." He wasn't sure if that was good or bad yet. "I enjoy that I don't have to take any math classes here."

[rhymeswithtable]

"A summer camp with math classes would be pretty much the worst summer camp ever at being a summer camp," Mabel pointed out, frowning thoughtfully. "Workshops for having outdoor adventures or eating food are way more like it. But it'll probably start acting more like a normal high school once the summer ends."

No. No it would not.

[ihuntkillers]

Jasper glanced around and then shook his head before looking back at her. "You really think that's gonna happen? That this place will revert to reading, writing and arithmetic when the summer ends?"

He didn't.

[rhymeswithtable]

"Why not?"

Presumably, the schools back in Gravity Falls had. And Gravity Falls was way weirder.

"But if they don't, that's fine too. Outdoor adventures class all year would be even better."