Mabel's thoughts churned as she ran beside Dipper. All she had wanted was information, all she had wanted was to summon someone that might know something, and now she had a full-blown haunting on her hands. Stupid Dream Hipster!

His teenager disguise was even cute.

Mabel pushed that thought out of her mind as Dipper grabbed her hand and pulled her down the hall. "Where — where are we going?" she panted.

"Away from the party," Dipper said. "We can't let the ghost ruin it!"

Of course Dipper was thinking about his party.

Now, Mabel, she chided herself. That's not exactly fair. If you had just shown up like you were supposed to, you wouldn't even be in this situation.

"Dipper," she said between breaths. "Dipper, I'm sorry. I thought-since Ford was gone — and now—"

"Shh," Dipper said as they rounded another corner. He stopped and flattened himself against the wall.

"Dip—"

He shushed her again. Why was he—?

"Oh, children," came a rough, sing-songy voice. "I know you're here."

Oh. Right. The ghost. That she had unleashed on the Mystery Museum.

Dipper edged down the hallway and pulled open a door, motioning for Mabel to join him inside. She obeyed and found herself in a small closet, with Dipper shutting them in.

"Do you really think hiding is the best idea?" she breathed in his ear.

"I don't know," Dipper replied. "I'm just playing by ear. Can he really hurt us? I mean, he is a ghost."

"I can't hurt you directly," someone whispered. "But I wouldn't take comfort from that."

Mabel and Dipper screamed as the Dream Hipster appeared right next to them.

The Hipster laughed at their fear and started bumping things around in the closet. A stack of board games fell on top of Mabel, and she cried out and fell to the ground, clutching her head. The boxes bounced off her shoulders, all corners and stiff cardboard.

"Mabel!" Dipper shouted.

"Dipper! Get the door!"

Dipper turned the knob and shoved the closet door open. The board games toppled out into the hall as Dipper pulled Mabel to her feet. The two started running again.

"I don't know why you run," came the Hipster's voice behind them. Then he appeared in front of them, cutting off their escape from the hallway. "I'm everywhere."

"This way," Mabel said, grabbing Dipper's hand and turning away from the ghost.

"Wait!" Dipper said, resisting her pull. "We can't go that way. That's the party!"

"A party, huh?" said the Hipster, this time appearing on Dipper's left. Dipper immediately threw a punch at him, but he disappeared and reappeared on the other side of Mabel. "Hey, what did the cabbage say to its friend? I don't always turnip at parties, but when I do, I'm the radish one there!"

Mabel stared at the Hipster. Was that a. . . pun?

"Looks I'm needed elsewhere!" the ghost said.

"No!" Dipper shouted. He lunged across Mabel, trying to get to the ghost, but the Hipster drifted away from him and started floating down the hall. Mabel and Dipper ran after him.

"Stop right there!" a voice yelled.

Mabel and Dipper stopped and whirled around. The ghost vanished.

Ford stood at the end of the hallway that connected with the entry way. His posture was imposing, and his eyes were filled with fury.

"Mabel!" Ford thundered, starting down the hall. "What's the one thing I asked you not to do tonight?"

Mabel wilted under his gaze. "R-raise the dead," she whispered.

"And what did you do?"

Her eyes studied the carpet patterns on the floor. "Raise the dead."

"Grunkle Ford," Dipper cut in. "Listen, the ghost is gonna get to the party if we don't stop him!"

The anger faded from Ford's eyes. "All right," he said, his voice controlled. "I've banished the Dream Hipster before, and I can do it again. But I'm going to need to get to his summoning circle."

"I-it's in the parlor," Mabel said. "Here." She fished the chalk out of her pocket and handed it to Ford.

"Good," Ford said. "Let's go."

The Pines all turned toward the parlor just as the Dream Hipster appeared in their path. "Stanford Pines," he jeered. "I never thought you'd lift a finger to help anyone." A sixth finger sprouted from his hand, and he waved it at Ford.

Ford growled. "We have to hurry, kids," he said under his breath.

"Why?" Dipper asked.

"Because he'll melt our brains with bad puns if we don't. You two hold him off while I get into the parlor."

Mabel stared up at her great uncle. "How? He can appear wherever he wants!"

"Like right here!" the ghost chimed in, appearing right in front of Ford's face. Ford jumped but didn't scream, and his fist went up and through the ghost's transparent abdomen.

The ghost recoiled backwards, then disappeared.

"Grunkle Ford, did you just punch him?" Dipper asked in awe.

"He's not completely intangible," Ford replied.

The ghost appeared over by the close, where the board games still strewn in the hallway began to glow and float off the ground. One of them hurled through the air, hitting the wall and exploding open. Mabel leapt away as plastic game pieces rained down from the box.

Ford picked up the now-empty cardboard box and handed it to Dipper. "Use this as a shield. Keep him entertained-literally, if you know any puns."

Dipper cracked his knuckles. "This sounds like a job for Dipper Pines."

Mabel decided right then that she would try to get into the parlor with Ford.

"Hey, ghost!" Dipper yelled. "I can read your mind!"

The ghost stopped getting ready to throw another box. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah! I know your favorite fruit!"

Uh-oh. Mabel braced herself.

"Booberries!" Dipper shouted.

The ghost screamed and clutched his hands over his ears.

Mabel blinked.

"Ha!" Ford said. "He can dish it out, but he can't take it! Dipper! Keep hitting him with ghost puns! Mabel, with me!"

Mabel and Ford raced toward the parlor as Dipper shouted more puns at the wailing ghost behind them.

"You know, I invited a lot of people to my party. But I bet you can only get anyone you can dig up!"

Mabel cringed at the joke, but she kept running. They were just about to the parlor door when the ghost appeared. This time, picture frames on the wall floated up to meet him.

"You can't stop me," he hissed. "Not even with your bad jokes."

"Your jokes are worse!" Mabel retorted.

"My jokes are unappreciated in their time!"

"They're unappreciated in any time, you — you—" Hurry, Mabel, think of a pun! "You Dream Spinster!"

"That doesn't even make any sense!" the Hipster screeched.

"Mabel, duck!" Dipper shouted.

Mabel hit the ground just as a board game soared over her head from behind. She'd forgotten about those.

"Hey!" Dipper shouted. "Careful with those! You wouldn't want to give anyone a boo-boo!"

The ghost let out a scream of rage and flew towards Dipper. Ford grabbed Mabel's hand and pulled her to the parlor door. Just before they slipped inside, Mabel looked over and saw Dipper kick the ghost into the air.

"And what ghost up," said Dipper, "must come down!" He jumped up and slammed the Hipster from above with his cardboard box. The ghost hit the ground, his arms disappearing halfway through the floorboards.

Ford pulled Mabel inside the parlor, and she lost sight of Dipper.

"Mabel, did you get the instructions out of the Journal?" Ford asked, rushing over to the summoning circle and surveying the lines Mabel had drawn within.

"Y-yes." Her eyes scanned the room and found the Journal on the floor a few feet away. "Here!" She thrust it at Ford.

Ford opened the Journal to the page on summoning ghosts and left it on the floor as he stepped into the center of the summoning circle. "Okay," he said. "Drag that candle out an inch or so."

Mabel hurried to the candle he was pointing at and did as he said. She heard an enraged scream from out in the hallway.

Ford knelt down and started rubbing at the chalk on the floor with his sleeve. "Help me erase this line."

The two rubbed at the line until it was a white smudge on the wood. Ford directed her to other lines that needed to be erased and candles that needed to be moved while he drew new lines.

"Mabel, Ford, look out!" Dipper shouted from outside.

The ghost burst into the parlor.

"Mabel! Hold him off! I'm almost done!"

Hold him off? Mabel didn't know any puns! Didn't Ford hear her horrible attempt at one out in the hallway?

She racked her brains for something, anything, that she'd heard or seen before.

Then it came to her. Something she had seen once on the wrapper of a candy bar. "Hey, Dream Hipster!" she yelled.

He threw a picture at her, and she dodged it.

"You look sad!"

The ghost disappeared and reappeared behind her. She whirled around to face him.

"Maybe you should get on an elevator!"

He snarled at her and got ready to throw another picture frame.

"It might lift your spirits!"

The ghost screamed. The pictures dropped to the floor.

Ford finished the line he was drawing.

The parlor erupted into blue-white light that radiated from the lines of chalk at Ford's feet. Ford stepped out of the circle, and the Dream Hipster started floating towards the circle. He shrieked and thrashed, and Mabel realized it was drawing him in.

"No! You can't contain me! Stop this!"

Ford folded his arms and stared down the struggling ghost. "I banish you," he said, "and your bad puns! Again!"

The ghost let out a final scream as he entered the circle's boundaries.

Then he disappeared for good.

The light from the summoning circle went out, along with the candles. The parlor was plunged into darkness.

Until Dipper came to the doorway turned on the light. "You did it!"

Mabel and Ford looked at each other, then to Dipper.

"Okay," Mabel said, "I went over a lot of ideas in my head about what might happen tonight. But a mainstream-hating, pun-loving ghost with a vengeance was not one of them."

There was a moment of silence.

Then Ford started to laugh.

It was loud and startling, but it sounded sincere. Dipper joined in, and then Mabel. The three of them spent at least a full minute just standing there in the parlor, laughing hysterically.

Ford was the first one to calm down. "Mabel. . . what exactly happened here?"

The laughter died in Mabel's throat.

"I, um," she said, and her voice was suddenly small. "I wanted — so badly to — to know what was going on with the basement and that triangle machine thing and-and all that, so I — I thought if I summoned a ghost — it might know something. I — I'm sorry, Grunkle Ford, I — I shouldn't have disobeyed you."

Ford didn't reply for a while. Mabel stared at the floor.

"Oh, Mabel," Ford finally said. His voice was soft.

She looked up at him. He was actually smiling. "You remind me of myself when I was younger," he said. "I should have known better than to underestimate a scientist with a question."

Mabel felt her heart flutter from the praise. "I-I'm no scientist."

"Problem," Ford said. "Stanford isn't giving any answers. Hypothesis: There's a ghost somewhere that can get me the information I need. Experiment: Summon the ghost. Result?" He looked to Mabel, waiting for an answer.

"A lot of really bad puns," she tried.

Ford chuckled. "Yes." Then he sighed. "Mabel, I keep information to myself for a reason. And that reason is keeping you and your brother safe. I know a lot about Gravity Rises, yes, but that information came with a cost. A dear one."

Mabel forced herself to keep eye contact.

"I don't want you getting hurt like I have," Ford continued. "But I should have seen the kindred spirit to me that you truly are. You won't stop in your search for knowledge simply because there are risks. I've seen that before. I saw that tonight. You may have only come up with a joke, but you made it possible for me to banish the Dream Hipster again."

He paused. "If you still want to know, I can tell you about the basement to the Museum."

Mabel's eyes widened. "R-really?"

Ford nodded. "It won't be pleasant. It's been painful to remember. But. . . I may need your help, moving forward. So yes. I'll tell you what I know."

Mabel felt like screeching or running around the room or shaking Dipper's shoulders violently as she screamed in his face. But she didn't do any of those things, just stood there staring at her great uncle in shock.

"But first," Dipper cut in. "There's still a party going on!"

Mabel and Ford looked at him and blinked. Right.

"And you both promised you would come," Dipper reminded them. "I bet Melody is getting the dances started right now!"

"Okay," Mabel said. "Party first, answers second."

Dipper's face lit up. "Yay! Thanks, Mabel!"

"Of course, bro," she said, moving to put an arm around his shoulder. "I already disrupted your party with this whole ghost fiasco. Plus, I did promise."

The twins turned to go.

"Wait," Ford said. "What about this mess?"

Mabel and Dipper stared at him.

"Clean it up in the morning?" Dipper tried, cracking a smile.

Ford gave him a look of disapproval. But it didn't last long. "All right," he conceded. "Clean it up in the morning."

And with that, the Pines family left the parlor and went triumphantly together to join the party.

A/N If anyone is wondering "what even is this chapter," so was I when I wrote it XD

Also,  drew Mabel dancing at the party:

Look at the smol <3