“I just can’t believe you did this – I can’t believe hedid this. Ugh!” Tyrone grumbled. “You just hang tight, okay? I’ll go knock some sense into him myself if I have too, just…. it’s going to be fine. Don’t let anyone else do anything crazy, okay? No more deals, or whatever. Got it?”
“What else was I supposed to do, Tyrone?” Mabel murmured quietly. Yes, it was a foolish thing of her to do, but what else could the brunette have done to save her brother? “Got it, no deals.”
“Is this temporaryorpermanent, Mabel?” Ford grits out, terror making his heart race and knocking all the good sense from his head. He shouldn’t be yelling at her for this, and some part of him knows that– but another, larger part of him is absolutely furious. Not at her, necessarily, but at Stan for not teaching these kids better on how to be cautious. He sighs irritably and finally releases her arms before he grips her so tight he leaves bruises. “Is that everything you know?”
Mabel didn’t know. She wished she knew the answer, but she didn’t. “I don’t know… permanent, maybe?” Why did Ford care so much…? Wasn’tDIPPER his favorite nibling? DIPPER was safe and sound, that’s all that mattered… right? “Yeah, t… that’s all I know.”
Of course. Of courseshe did. What an idiot. Stupid Mabel. Stupid Bipper…
“I’ll try to fix this,” he grumbles, because what else can be done? Mabel can’t nothave a soul. “Are you…” was he really about to ask this? “Are you like…. okay? I mean. Do you… need anything, or…?” Honestly, he wasn’t really sure what happened when someone didn’t have a soul. A little voice in the back of his head was sayingjust tell her you could’ve been Dipper instead, she didn’t need to sell her soul.But he didn’t say that.
“I’m obviously not fine.” Mabel stated curtly before shrugging her shoulders. “And I don’t think I need anything.” She wasn’t sure HOW Tyrone could possibly fix this, but if she still had any sort of emotion she’d be begging him to fix it. This just felt uncomfortable for her. That was it, basically. Just uncomfortable.
Ford’s shoulders sag, and his expression pinches into something unreadable. “In this context, Mabel, I don’t know that I would have. Dealing with Bill is– he doesn’t ever hold his end of the bargain. What exactly was the deal, Mabel, what did you agree to? What did he say, tell me word for word.” he shakes her slightly by the shoulders.
Mabel didn’t like this, not at all. Or, at least that’s how she WOULD have felt if she still had her soul. “I can’t remember word for word.” She exhaled a small sigh and lowered her eyes. “I told him I could give him my soul if he let Dipper go, and he said fine. Then I held out my hand for him to shake, and he shook it.”
Ford just opens and closes his mouth a couple times as he fights for words to represent the thoughts all swimming in his head, fighting for the forefront. In his distress, he has Mabel tugged up onto her tiptoes, practically ragdolling her he’s so upset.
“Mabel!” he doesn’t mean to shout at her, but his rational brain is completely overpowered by the part of him on red alert. “What– how! Why– Mabel!”
Mabel’s hands clenched onto Ford’s shoulders as she attempted to steady herself, her heart rate speeding up. Her expression never changed however.
“I told you, to save Dipper. Wouldn’t you have done the same to save grunkle Stan?”
“You WHAT?!” his voice immediately raises and he grabs Mabel by the arms, probably a little too roughly to keep her from retreating. “What did you do, Mabel! What deal, what did you do??”
Though she was technically soulless, her heart was pounding wildly inside her chest as if she werenervous. “I handed over my soul.” Mabel answered quietly, not flinching as he grabbed her arms. “I did what I thought was right.”
Ford looks immediately taken off guard, and he squats down to his niece’s level, squinting at her as he takes a pen light out of his pocket to shine in her eyes.
“Are you feeling alright, Mabel?” whatever he was about to argue seems to have been forgotten in favor of concern for his usually bubbly niece’s shift in demeanor.
Mabel blinked twice, immediately backing up as the light shown in her eyes. She rubbed at her eyes for a second and frowned.
“I made a deal with Bill, because Dipper was possessed.” She knew how her grunkle would react, but being honest was better than lying at this point.
“I saved Dipper is what I did. Why is everyone so upset that I got Dipper back to normal? For the second time?” Mabel didn’t sound upset or even angry. In fact, she sounded utterlyemotionlessas she stared up at Ford. “It was either that, or nothing. Did you want Dipper to stay possessed?”
Tyrone followed Mabel’s voice, and stood in the doorway as he looked at her. His arms were crossed, he was angry, but not at her – well, a little with her. When BipperBill told him what he’d done… Tyrone had HOPED it had been a joke, or even a prank, something temporary, but it was clear something was off and it wasn’t a lack of glitter in the house.
“Yikes. Mabel – what did you DO?” As if he didn’t know. “I mean… why?”
Mabel could easily sense that Tyrone was angry, but sadly, she didn’t care. Even if she’d WANTED to, she couldn’t. Lifting a brow, she gave a shrug of the shoulders. Her voice went completely monotone again.
“Made a deal to get Dipper back.”
The answer rolled off her tongue smoothly. “And because. Dipper’s my brother? I was panicked and didn’t know what else to do. Bill likes deals. It wasn’t too hard to figure out what kind of deal he’d be interested in.”
