Hey guys. This is just some writing practice since I've been slacking off with writing recently, and I'm going through another obsession phase with Gravity Falls, and started rereading some of the pages in Journal 3, and this is the result. There may be minor errors, and if there are, I apologize for that, and you're more than welcome to point them out to me so I can correct them. I hope that you enjoy this random little story I came up with. Also, if you haven't read Journal 3 or finished the entire series yet, SPOILERS!

It was a few days after Weirdmageddon, and the recovery with Grunkle Stan's memories was going well, although he ended up falling asleep out of exhaustion from the mental strain and events of the past few days. They decided not to disturb him, figuring he more than deserved a break. They could always resume with the recovery process later, they were already making some really good progress and should be done soon.

Dipper's mind wandered back to all the crazy stuff that happened this past Summer. Strange mysterious journals, fighting gnomes, evil wax figures, merman, evil dream demons...

Sounded like something straight out of those fantasy novels he liked to read. I wonder if any of those stories actually did happen? He mused, figuring that considering all the crazy stuff and paranormal weirdness that happened this Summer, that it couldn't be too much of a stretch.

And yet, despite all the crazy stuff that happened, his mind kept wandering back to one, seemingly insignificant event: the day he accidentally revealed his real name to Ford.

He had just asked his newly discovered great uncle why Gravity Falls was so weird after Ford promised to tell him everything he knew of Gravity Falls after the unicorn hair incident. Ford ended up taking him over to the town border, near a hill, pulling out a bag of jellybeans. He explained that everything in the universe was like a jellybean, made of the same basic material, but varying in color and flavor, but more or less conforming to a certain pattern. But by chance, every now and again, a bean would come out deformed...weird. Abnormal.

Ford demonstrated by pulling out an especially strange looking bean, dropping it and the rest of the bag at his feet, as they began to tumble downhill, all except for that one little weird bean. Instead of tumbling downwards like the rest, it almost magically tumbled upwards.

He explained that it was because Gravity Falls was a weirdness magnet, abnormalities strangely drawn to this town, and that from the moment he walked here that his arrival in this town was not an accident, but rather, perhaps, fate, and that his arrival too may not have not been an accident, that they might be apart of some greater destiny.

"You and I are some of the strangest beans this town has ever seen, Dipper," He remembered Ford telling him after the demonstration.

"Mason!" He had accidentally blurted, then as he realized what he had just said, eyes widening in shock, and his expression turning sheepish. He didn't even know why he had randomly blurted that out, but he figured Ford deserved an explanation. He then took a deep breath, and began to explain. "My real name is Mason. Dipper is just a nickname. But everyone got used to it, and now it feels too late to tell everyone the truth. And it's kind of a dumb name anyway. Don't tell anyone."

He looked downwards, still embarrassed, but Ford just tussled his hair and smiled at him. "Your secret's safe with me, Mason." He said. "And I think it's a great name. The Masons are a great secret society, you know."

He looked upwards again, and his embarrassed expression turned into one of gratitude, and his frown turned into a small smile.

It was odd. He had battled so many paranormal creatures, practically the stuff of legend, and he had just been through an apocalypse, for goodness sake! So, why was he thinking about some stupid trivial event like that? A name wasn't that big of a deal, right?

But then, he realized, that maybe it wasn't a big deal for most people, but it was for him.

His birth name, of course, was Mason, but for almost all he could remember, he was referred to as Dipper, because of his birthmark, and soon, that's just who he was. Not Mason Pines, Dipper Pines.

Mason almost felt foreign to say, even though it was supposed to be his freaking name. Everyone had called him Dipper, even his teachers, his parents, everyone. Sometimes he actually had trouble remembering his actual name!

But then, he was interrupted from his thoughts as he heard a knocking at the door. "Hey dude, open up!" a very familiar voice called. His heart skipped a few beats. Wendy!

He immediately rushed to open the door, and the teenager immediately stepped inside.

"Huh, don't think I've been in your room before. Cool." She said, but then she noticed Dipper's odd expression and the bags under his eyes. "Hey, dude, you okay? You look even more tired than usual."

Was it really that obvious? He thought. Mentally shrugging it off, he awkwardly rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, I've been fine. Just, you know, thinking about stuff."

Wendy's carefree expression turned into one of concern. "You know you don't have to hide things from me, Dipper." She said comfortingly. "What's on your mind?"

Dipper paused. Should he really tell her? It felt so stupid. To have gone through the end of the world and worry about a freaking name, of all things. But, maybe it would help if he told someone, and he knew he could always trust Wendy.

Decision made, he took a deep breath, he looked up at her, looking straight into her eyes. "Remember when I showed you my birthmark?" He asked.

Wendy looked a bit confused at the seemingly random question, but then nodded. "Yeah, that'd be a little hard to forget. That's one strange birthmark, dude."

Dipper paused. He couldn't really argue there. Nevertheless, he continued, "And do you remember when I said Dipper was just a nickname?"

Wendy, again, looked confused before she regained her composure. "Of course. What about it?"

"Well..." He began rubbing the back of his neck again. Why was this so darn embarrassing? "This has kind of been bugging me for a while, but I tried to just ignore it, but I feel like I really need to tell someone about it," he took another deep breath, and trying to muster up all the confidence he could, he continued. "My real name is Mason."

The redhead looked taken aback. That was it? She was worried it'd be nightmares or something. She was actually a bit relieved that wasn't the case. Or so she hoped.

Regardless, she ended up laughing, inadvertently coming off as insensitive. "That's really all you wanted to tell me? You know I don't care about that kind of thing, dude."

It looked like her comment didn't have the intended effect, though, as Dipper's, no, Mason's expression turned to one of hurt and shame. He tipped his hat and began facing towards the floor, crestfallen. "You're right, it was stupid anyway." He muttered, already beginning to walk away and towards the door. "Just forget I said anything."

Her eyes widened, and she quickly grabbed his arm to keep him from leaving. He struggled to escape her grip, but Wendy was too strong for him. Her emerald green eyes met his chocolate brown ones. "I didn't mean to hurt you," She said regretfully, beginning to feel like a huge jerk, "I was just a bit surprised that's what you wanted to tell me with all that just happened. Whatever your name is, whatever you want to call yourself, Dipper, Mason, or something else, you're still the same cool dude I met this Summer. Honestly, you're kind of a like a brother to me." She said a bit bashfully, "Definitely a lot less crazy than my real ones, but don't let them know I said that."

His expression lightened up, and he actually chuckled a bit, before smiling. "I won't, don't worry. And thanks, Wendy. I really appreciate that."

"No problem, Mason." She responded, smiling.

She then looked over at the new green watch she just got from Grunkle Stan who "overstocked" his merchandise again, which she knew was really just his way of being nice. "Oh, it looks like The Widdlist Vampire is about to start!" She looks at him excitedly. "You want to go watch it together? One last time before the Summer ends?"

Any signs of shame or embarrassment now completely gone, he grinned widely. "You bet I do!"

Laughing, the two make their way out of the bedroom, both of them happy to be in each other's company.

This is my first time writing Gravity Falls in a while, and my previous stories for it were of pretty poor quality, so I hope I didn't make Dipper and Wendy seem too out of character. Also, if you're wondering about the name of the story, the name Mason means "Worker of stone".