Anyway, I've Been There
is a Gravity Falls fanfic by Caleb Nova.
After leaving Gravity Falls, Dipper and Mabel soon realize that the weirdness that defined Gravity Falls has followed them back home. Things become more complicated when a former enemy reaches out to the twins for help in dealing with a dangerous new anomaly.
Anyway I've been there is ongoing and broken up into three parts. Part 1 (titled "Anyway, I've Been There") takes place during the school year following the end of the show. Part 2 (titled "New Summer Season") takes place during the following summer. Part 3 (titled "A Map to Nameless Stars") takes place during the next school year after that summer.
Warning: All Spoilers Unmarked
This fanfic provides examples of:
- 10-Minute Retirement: Once the summer season starts, Stan resumes running The Mystery Shack after finishing his trip with Ford despite having retired.
- Absent Animal Companion: While a minor fixture in the story early on, Waddles is generally left in the background when the kids returned to Gravity Falls.
- Absurdly Sharp Claws: The Werebear has these, which Ford needs as material for his power generator.
- Abusive Parents: Pacifica's parents now act worse after Weirdmaggeddon, to the point of actively trying to convince Pacifica that it never happened or blaming her specifically.
- Acceptable Breaks from Canon: Pacifica is not characterized as a secret MMO gamer since that detail was revealed after the story began.
- A Day in the Limelight: Chapter 43 is the only chapter not involving Dipper, Mabel, or Pacifica. focusing on Ford and Stan.
- Admiring the Abomination: Dipper always suggests talking to the monster first, to the chagrin of Pacifica.
- Adults Are Useless: Invoked and subverted with Dipper and Mabel's parents, while they remain ignorant of the supernatural and act as an additional hindrance that was not present in Gravity Falls, they are also willing to open their home to Pacifica simply because she needs a place to live.
- After-Action Patch-Up: Pacifica treating Dipper's injuries from the Boss-Lobster.
- All Therapists Are Muggles: In Chapter 3, Mabel worries that their parents would send Dipper to a therapist, who Dipper could never be honest with because of the need to keep the secrets of Gravity Falls.
- Ascended Extra: Pacifica was a major character in her own right in the show, but in this story takes place as one of the three main protagonists alongside Dipper and Mabel.
- Badass Bookworm: Dipper is constantly reading and recording information about the supernatural, he takes after his Grunkle Ford.
- Badass Family: Both sets of Pines Twins continue to kick butt together.
- Banishing Ritual: When the twins, surprisingly, find a real ghost in Piedmont, they hack together a banishing ritual using kitchen condiments. Considering the entire reason the ghost was sticking around was because they hated the new homeowner's interior decorating sense, this pisses the ghost off even more. It does work, though.
- Beach Episode: Chapter 60 is spent at Lake Gravity Falls where the characters spend the day fishing and engaging in a chicken fight.
- Better as Friends: After the return party, Dipper has a heart-to-heart with Wendy on the roof. While he had long since given up on actually getting together with her, he finally realizes that it was never actually a good idea; he really just wanted to be friends with her because she's cool, but because she's also a hot girl all his feelings got mixed together. Thinking about it, he figures his behavior towards her wouldn't have been all that different if she had been a guy acting the exact same way.
- The Big Damn Kiss: In Chapter 38 on Pacifica's first day of school she plants one of these on Dipper in gratitude for everything he has done for her. Naturally, they both spend the rest of the day fantasizing about it.
- Body Horror: Pacifica has a vivid nightmare where she sees Dipper's body with its head sewn back on after having been implied to be chopped off.
- Book Ends: Part 1 starts with leaving Gravity Falls and ends with returning to Gravity Falls.
- Brains and Brawn: Dipper and Ford are the brains to Mabel and Stan's brawn. Dipper does become stronger than Mabel, but Mabel is still more violent.
- Break the Haughty: This happens to Pacifica, who loses her home, her summer friends, her family, and her home (again). She eventually finds a new home, friends, and family with Dipper and Mabel, but not without more than six months of isolation and loneliness.
- Brother–Sister Team: Dipper and Mabel, who are twins, are constantly going on dangerous adventures together.
- Chekhov's Gun: The Photocopies of Journal 3 that Stan created make a return in helping Dipper fill Journal A.
- The Chew Toy: After escaping his first summer in Gravity Falls relatively unscathed, Dipper learns the hard way that his continued career of monster hunting comes with some very dangerous risks and often his recklessness comes with pretty harsh consequences. These range from a wound from the Boss-Lobster that requires stitches, nearly dying in the infinite maze, falling from a great height into a lake and having to hike back home through the woods, and even an extended stay at the hospital. Needless to say, most of his family and friends begin to grow concerned.
- City of Adventure: How the Twins come to see Gravity Falls, where mystery lurks around every corner and responsibility was minimal.
- Clone Angst: Tracy and Quattro hate being clones and are driven by the single purpose of getting Dipper and Wendy together, Tyrone 2 doesn't have much trouble since he considers himself and Dipper the same anyways.
- Coming of Age Story: Dipper, Mabel, and Pacifica all have moments of growing up in different ways. Dipper begins to appreciate being a kid more and not trying to skip ahead too much. Mabel realizes she needs to accept growing up and giving up some things, such as when she decides she's too old to trick-or-treat. Pacifica has the most development, realizing that she doesn't have to be bound by her family or what they considered "appropriate."
- Continuation: Anyway, I've Been There picks up seconds after Gravity Falls ends.
- Cool Old Guy: Both Stan and Ford, who spend nine months offscreen hunting sea monsters before returning to the spotlight to resume kicking ass with Dipper and Mabel.
- Crappy Carnival: Stan makes an even larger Mystery Fair to bank on the family's newfound hero status, with more of the same unhealthy food and unsafe rides as last year.
- Creepy Basement: The Northwest Malibu home was probably perfectly normal, once upon a time. By the time Dipper and Mabel see it, it's infested by a giant semi-intelligent lobster that dug a hole through the foundation and flooded it. Going down there is like a Lovecraftian horror story.
- Damsel in Distress: Pacifica early in the story, with ongoing drama with her family driving her to seek consoling from Dipper.
- Dark and Troubled Past: Stan and Ford in general, which made it much harder to explain to Dipper and Mabel's parents when they revealed their deception.Mrs. Pines: ...for thirty years?
Ford: I did not say the situation was ideal.
- Domestic Abuse: After Weirdmageddon, Mr. and Mrs. Northwest often get into loud screaming matches with each other, usually about Preston trying to sell out humanity to Bill. They typically only stop long enough to blame everything on Pacifica, or try to convince her that none of it happened at all.
- Embarrassing First Name: Dipper isn't comfortable with people calling him Mason.
- Evil Is Hammy: Greg hams it up whenever he is on screen, even when he is on the phone with his mom.
- Exhausted Eye Bags: Pacifica gets these during her period of isolation following Weirdmageddon.
- Extra-Strength Masquerade: Discussed; the Law of Weirdness Magnetism keeps Weird stuff in Gravity Falls, and the Society of the Blind Eye kept anyone from talking about it too much. But not everything is kept in by the bubble, and the Blind Eye couldn't get every tourist even before Dipper and Mabel took them down. The question of how the town's Weirdness has remained contained for decades, much less in the era of cell phones, is an ongoing question. Ford eventually proves that memories of Weirdness are themselves Weird, and remain trapped by the bubble around the town. Sufficiently Weird individuals (such as anyone who has been in the town for months) will keep their memories, but Weird memories in a non-Weird vessel are distorted, blurred, or lost entirely when people leave.
- False Friend: Pacifica to Tiffany and Elizabeth, her former summer companions. They weren't so much her friends as they were her hired help. While they arguably weren't the greatest friends to her, she was far worse, and there's no sign that she thought of them even once until she runs into them by accident on returning to Gravity Falls. She tries to make up, but they shoot her down.
- First Kiss: Dipper and Pacifica share their first kiss (Dipper explicitly says that Mermando doesn't count!).
- Futile Hand Reach: During a monster hunt, Dipper fails to grab Mabel midair during a maneuver, causing him to hit the ground and later end up hospitalized.
- Ghostly Goals: In chapter 4, Dipper and Mabel encounter Type 1 who is intent on trying to impose its decorative tastes on the house it is haunting.
- Girly Bruiser: Mabel gets in a lot of excursions, but since coming back to Gravity Falls, Pacifica is more likely to jump into action.
- Gory Discretion Shot: Thankfully, Dipper receiving stitches from Mabel after an injury is only mentioned after the fact instead of being described in scene.
- Halloween Episode: Chapter 5 is a standalone chapter detailing Dipper and Mabel enjoying Halloween together. Chapter 78 is set up to be this before being derailed by an interdimensional portal potty.
- Heat Wave: One Occurs in Chapter 73 (which is aptly titled "Heat"), the Pines' response is to return to the public pool.
- Hidden in Plain Sight: The source of the Wendigo's power was hidden in Greg's Journal, but Dipper didn't think to check it until ten chapters after he acquired it.
- Hurt/Comfort Fic: Several of the most popular chapters revolve around Pacifica being comforted by Dipper following isolation and emotional abuse by her parents.
- Honest John's Dealership: Gideon becomes this after starting an enterprise selling magical artifacts to pathetic deadbeats.
- Interspecies Romance: One is developing between Mabel and Brendan (who is a werewolf). It is acknowledged that werewolves are compatible with humans reproductively.
- Incredible Shrinking Man: In chapter 80, Mabel and Pacifica shrink themselves to retrieve Pacifica's phone from fairy thieves.
- Improvised Weapon: Dipper, Mabel, and Pacifica use torches made with chair legs, cleaning rags, and boat motor oil to fight the Boss-Lobster.
- It Can Think: Dipper almost dies attempting to communicate with the Boss-Lobster, a later encounter with the same creature proves that the Boss-Lobster is more intelligent than previously thought.
- Inferiority Superiority Complex: Pacifica has been working her way through a strong case of this. She acts like she is above everyone, but privately admits she thinks that everyone who doesn't hate her should hate her.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Stan is still just as abrasive as ever, but he has become a lot more generous with his money when it comes to Dipper and Mabel.
- Masquerade Enforcer: A society of supernatural beings regularly meet up to discuss keeping their existence a secret to the modern world.
- Missing Child: The twins' parents panic when they don't return their calls after taking an unsupervised flight to Malibu and don't come home until late night. Dipper and Mabel realize also realize their adventuring and surviving an apocalypse is not something to tell their parents.
- Mystery Magnet: The town of Gravity Falls and everyone who spends time there, Dipper and Ford's investigation into this phenomenon gives Anyway, I've Been There a secondary narrative through-line.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- Mr. and Mrs. Pines worry about Mabel in Chapter 1 because she isn't behaving like her usual self before summer.
- Later into the story when Mabel is having an internal struggle, other characters note when she starts avoiding Dipper.
- Parental Substitute: The Pines parents, particularly the twins' mother, pretty much adopts Pacifica the second she shows up. When they're in Gravity Falls, Stan says Pacifica has a call from her mom, and she assumes he means Mrs. Pines.
- Post-Kiss Catatonia: When Pacifica kisses Dipper, she privately notes he looks like he "short-circuited". The next chapter, from Dipper's perspective, show he's so shocked he's left in a ten second fugue state and doesn't know where he is.
- Road Trip Plot: Several. The first one involved getting Pacifica to Piedmont, and a second much longer arc involved everyone from the Shack driving to Portland to confront Gideon.
- The World Is Not Ready: How Ford generally feels about revealing the weirdness of Gravity Falls and reality at large to the populace.
