Tangled Up in Mysteries
is a a crossover between Gravity Falls and ParaNorman written by Ksiezniczka.
Norman Babcock has been spending every summer for the last three years with his best friends Dipper and Mabel Pines, in Gravity Falls, Oregon. This year, though? This year is going to be different. For one thing, Dipper swears that this year is the year they're finally going to solve the mysteries of Gravity Falls. For another thing, Norman has been having these recurring nightmares lately, about a very creepy triangle man. Oh, and then there's the matter of Norman's pesky crush on Dipper.
It also spawned several follow-up stories, like The Dipper Pines Guide to Dating, Out of the Dark and Something More; plus some one-shots.
Tangled Up in Mysteries provides examples of:
- Adaptational Badass: In this fic, Norman finds out that he has the same Shock and Awe powers as Aggie in her angry ghost form. This is Played for Drama, with Norman being extremely aprehensive towards it, accidentally hurting Dipper with them and getting possessed by Bill Cipher so he could use his abilities to his apocalyptic plans.
- Adaptational Name Change:Due to the fic being written before A Tale of Two Stans, Stanley is refered as Stanford.
- Adaptational Sexuality:
- While in his movie he expressed no attraction for any gender, here Norman is in love with Dipper.
- In Gravity Falls, both Dipper and Mabel expressed interest for the opposite gender, in the T Ui M-verse they're respectively bissexual and pan, with Mabel being in a relationship with Pacifica Northwest by the start of the story, who is a lesbian.
- Afraid of Their Own Strength: Norman is extremely freaked out by finding out that he has the same abilities as Agatha because they were the result of her being so overtaken by fear and anger that she became a twisted shadow of her former self after 300 years of pent-up rage over her unjust death. Dipper comforts him, saying that he'd never be scared of Norman even after he hurted him.Norman:Are you sure you aren’t afraid of me?Dipper:What? Why would I be afraid of you?Norman:Y-you know, because of the… I could hurt you, Dipper. I did hurt you.Dipper:Well…I mean, when you think about it, it’s kind of cool. It’s like I’m dating an X-Man.Norman:(laughing)I’m being serious, Dip!Dipper:So am I! You’ve got like, what, two, three superpowers if we’re counting the occasional visions? That’s one more than Wolverine has, and he’s the coolest one.
- Anger Born of Worry:A two-fold for Dipper after he breaks his wrist trying to protect Norman: the first from Grunkle Stan and the second from Norman himself.
- Anguished Declaration of Love: in a Anger Born of Worry rant over Dipper's self destructive obssession with Gravity Falls' secrets, Norman ends up confessing his feelings for Dipper, resulting in them kissing. However in a moment of panic, Dipper tries to deny everything, claiming he is not gay. Fed up with his denial, Norman tries to get away from Dipper and accidentally pushes him away with his "lightning powers". Horrified, Norman runs away from the Mysterie Shack and falls prey to Bill Cipher's Machinations.Damm.
- After freeing Norman's body from Bill, Dipper confesses back to Norman while begging him to stay.
- Arbitrary Skepticism: Despite all his adventures in Graviy Falls and Agent Mulder status, Dipper thinks that the Bigfoot isn't real.
- Also, both Mabel and Norman are quite skeptic towards Dipper's theory about aliens (Although in Norman's case is more due to thinking that the UFO-shaped cliff isn't enough proof.)
- Armoured Closet Gay: Dipper spends most of the story denying his feelings for Norman, repeatadly stating in his inner monologue that "he isn't gay" and using the town's mysteries to distract himself from his crush. It completely backfires. Although it's less due to a case of internalized homophobia and more to a fear of change and ruining his and Norman's friendship.
- Back from the Dead: Thanks to his "deal" with Bill Cipher Norman is basically dead when his body is possessed. After Bill's defeat, Norman almost decides to pass to the other side, but returns after hearing Dipper's confession.
- The Big Bad: Bill Cypher.
- Big Brother Instinct: Due to Pacifica's history with Mabel, Dipper is very hostile towards her even though she and Mabel are happily dating. Although Pacifica isn't helping, riling Dipper up whenever she gets the chance.
- Brick Joke: In Chapter 1, Mabel bets with Dipper that they're going to find Bigfoot, who claims he's not real. Fast foward to Chapter 5, they do find the Bifoot... who's extremely territorial and chases the Mystery Trio away.
- Brown Note: How Bill sounds (or speaks) to Norman.
- Crush Blush: Tons between Dipper and Norman. You could even start a drinking game.
- Died Happily Ever After: With the defeat of Bill Cipher, Father O'Reilly and his cult are finally free from the Dreamscaper and able to pass to the afterlife.
- Dreaming of Things to Come: Throught the story Norman keeps having nightmares about being chased in a dark florest by an unseen evil that keeps taunting him. In a late night talk with Dipper, he affirms that they feel similar to the visions he had about the witch's curse when he was younger. It turns out o be a premonition of when he gets lost in the woods and is mentally tortured by Bill.
- I Don't Want to Ruin Our Friendship: The main reason why neither Dipper or Norman confess their feelings, despite being it being obvious to everyone that they both like each other. Because of their mutual Friendless Background, they don't want to risk losing someone who they see as their best friend.
- I Got Bigger: After years of scrawniness, Dipper is now stockier and taller than his sister Mabel. However, he isn't as tall as Norman, much to his chagrin.Dipper:That is so not fair!Norman:Not fair? Dipper, I haven’t even put my bag down yet.Dipper:I’m older, I should be taller!
- Innocently Insensitive: While Dipper genuinely cares about Norman and wants help him as best as he can, he just can't help with his Seeker tedencies when Norman's issues coincides with the secrets of Gravity Falls, often putting Norman in an uncomfortable position. Mabel calls him out on this.
- Dipper:N-Norman, wait-!
- Mabel:Dipper, you idiot. If you had just paid attention to me, you would have seen he didn’t want to talk about it!Dipper:Oh man, Mabel, I didn’t mean to-Mabel:I know you didn’t, but you really need to work on watching what you say before you say it. Dipper, I think Norman is really terrified by all this stuff. And I think he’s not telling you just how scared he is because he sees how into it you are.Dipper:I’m not ‘into’ it. I’m trying to help him!
- As seen above, he also acted this way after he kissed Norman, unitentionally reacting the worst way possible and hurting Norman all because he was afraid of his own feelings.
- To be fair to Dipper, he admits that he messed up and apologizes for it.
- Morality Pet: Pre-Character Development, Mabel was the only person Pacifica treated well.
- Kick the Morality Pet:Pacifica ends up doing this to Mabel when the later tries to make her open up about her parents.
- Pitbull Dates Puppy: Mabel and Pacifica's relationship in a nutshell.
- Power Trio: Dipper, Mabel and Norman, aka: the Mystery Trio.they become the Mystery Quartet when Pacifica joins in.
- Secret Relationship: Pacifica has been dating Mabel in secret for over a year to keep up the appearences. Not that Mabel minds that much.
- Shout-Out:
- Multiple for The X-Files.
- Also for Cthulhu Mythos
- Pacifica's Girl Posse thinks her relationship with Mabel is a makeover situation like Clueless.
- Sinister Minister: Father O'Reilly, the leader of an apocalyptic cult in Gravity Falls in the mid-1920's,that ended with a Murder-Suicide of all the members.
- There Is Only One Bed: After getting into the attic, Dipper and Norman discuss with each other who's getting Dipper's bed. According to Mabel, they do this every year, with them either ending up together on the floor or the bed.
