05
Pacifica

Staring at the phone screen only did so much for them. One part of Pacifica's brain was trying to figure out what the hell Dipper actually sent to Gideon; if it was truly a mistake, if it was in a different language, if it was a code of sorts, or just a way to mess with Gideon.

The other part was hurting itself trying to figure out why Dipper would send it to Gideon and not her; did Dipper think that Gideon was more trustful than she was? He texted him two days after he last texted her, why had he done that?

Pacifica tried not to take it super personal as she took one more glance the the strange and cryptic text message.

"What the hell does that mean?" Mabel frowned and pulled Gideon's phone closer to her face.

"That's why I thought it was a mistake." Gideon admitted. "Either he was drunk and tried to pour out a coherent message, or he sent it to the wrong person."

"Well, this looks too realistic to be a coincidence." Pacifica pulled the phone back to her, staring endlessly at the message on the screen. Already, she had a few theories in the back of her head just waiting to be discussed.

"I'll say." Mabel muttered. "It isn't just a bunch of random letters. Nothing with my brother is ever that simple. Nor is anything a coincidence when he's involved."

Gideon looked at Pacifica, eyes holding a tad bit of concern. "You okay, Paz? You just look a little—"

"I'm fine." She interrupted. There was no reason to explain that Pacifica felt hurt over such a stupid little thing. It was entirely irrational and no doubt the rest of them would feel the same.

"Right." Gideon mumbled, turning away from her. "Does anyone have any idea what this really says?"

Both Pacifica and Mabel shrugged.

"No doubt that it's a code." Gideon went on, peering down at his phone. "But what kind of code, and what does it actually mean?"

"Snafu."

The three of them looked over to where Scarlett sat, eyes staring right ahead as if nothing was amiss.

"Bless you?" Gideon wrinkled his nose.

"No, genius." Scarlett rolled her eyes and snatched the phone up from the table, startling everyone with her drastic movements. Pointing a black manicured nail at the first word in the text message, she reiterated. "Snafu. It's an acronym."

"What, really?" Pacifica stared at the word for a little longer.

"What does it mean, Scarlett?" Mabel leaned in a little closer.

"Well, for starters, that's how you know that Dipper actually sent that message and that he truly meant it." Scarlett continued.

"How does that help anything?" Pacifica demanded.

"Well, back when the two of us were a little more. . .close, we had ways of letting the other know how our situations were going. It taught him how to let me know when he was feeling out of it, super stressed or frustrated. In turn, I used Fubar." Scarlett explained, and Pacifica half expected her to grin at her in attempts to make her feel worse, but she just had a small, genuine smile on her face. Like she was remembering a pleasant memory.

Great. First of all, Dipper sent a coded message to Gideon over her. Second of all, he started the message off with another secret code that only Scarlett would know. What the hell was actually going on anymore? Did he not trust her? Or did he think Pacifica couldn't help him?

"Okay, enough backstory." Mabel, probably sensing Pacifica's discomfort, interrupted. "What exactly does it mean?"

"Situation Normal, All Fucked Up." Scarlett recited. "So, that in itself is already a giant clue to what Dipper's message says."

"Clearly something is wrong." Pacifica stated, taking in the new piece of information that Scarlett had willingly shared.

"More like something was wrong." Gideon muttered, his head in his hands. "I'm so sorry that I didn't ask you guys earlier. We could have gotten involved before it was too late."

"It can't be that dramatic." Mabel reassured Gideon, with a hand placed awkwardly albeit gently on his shoulder. "I'm sure Dipper is just fine."

"Does anyone have any other ideas about the coded message?" Pacifica asked, gauging everyone's reactions. In truth, she had no idea where to start to begin unravelling Dipper's message.

In her time spent in Reverse Falls over the course of a sporadic six-month stay in total, Pacifica had seen enough codes and already had an interest in it. However, Dipper had been studying that sort of thing the longest out of anyone in our group, Mabel coming in in a close second. Maybe they didn't even have a chance at piecing together the entire message.

"Okay, take a second." Mabel breathed out, closing her eyes. "Clearly there is a piece that someone knows. We are all connected to it, somehow. Only we can solve this together."

"How do you figure?" Scarlett leaned back in her chair, not appearing to be bored with the situation, more like feigning disinterest.

"Well, Gideon was sent the message, and you knew the first spring of letters was actually a code that the two of you used to use." Mabel locked eyes with Pacifica now, unblinking. "There has to be two parts left, one for each of us. Something tells me that we won't figure it out until everyone has done their part."

"Great, a code that relies on our own memories." Gideon rolled his eyes, head in his hands, knocking slightly against the wooden table. "Why couldn't he just make it simpler? An easy 'hey guys, this is what is going on' sort of thing."

"Hmm." Pacifica closed her eyes and pondered it. There had to be one overbearing reason that Dipper sent it the way he did. "If Dipper overly-encrypted this message, that means he didn't want anyone to read it and understand it."

"Uh, duh." Scarlett snorted. "That's the basics of coding."

"You're not getting what I'm hinting at." Pacifica sighed, wishing that she could go back in time and just outright say what she meant. "What I'm saying is, depending on the contents of this message, it could mean that Dipper was trying to get information out to us before. . ."

"Before what?" Mabel leaned in closer to Pacifica. She knew what she was doing. Mabel was far more intuitive than anyone at that kitchen table, so she was playing ignorant on purpose.

"Before it was too late." Pacifica finished with a sigh.

"What are you saying? That Dipper's. . ." Gideon trailed off when he saw the look on Mabel's face.

"No, I doubt it." Scarlett stepped in. "No matter how good of assassins they could've been, they wouldn't be able to hide Dipper's death away from the media. And, no offense to him, but he's not so important that someone would wanna kill him."

Pacifica stared at Scarlett for a moment. She knew she was probably saying that to make Mabel feel better, even if she didn't have the greatest way of phrasing it. "Exactly. Most likely he's just in trouble." That didn't make it any better, but what else was there to say?

Mabel nodded slowly, as if that was news to her.

"Guys, can we focus on the code?" Gideon pleaded. "The sooner we decode it, the sooner we can figure out what happened to Dipper."

Scarlett glanced back down at the phone, pursing her lips. "Well, if it's as Mabes said, that means you two," she pointed to Pacifica and then Mabel, "need to figure out how you play a role. Gideon, you are welcome to help as much as you'd like."

Pacifica nodded and turned her gaze back to the phone. If Mabel was right, she needed to figure out some sort of thing that only Dipper would want her to know, in hopes of solving that particular message.

"Mabel, you've got a secret compartment in your library, right?"

"Yes, yes I do." Mabel stated.

"No doubt you have books on secret codes, correct?" Pacifica asked, glancing out the window and into the front yard. This time she had been smart and tucked the third journal into her duffle bag. "Wanna look through those while Gideon and I try to decode it using the journal?"

Scarlett wrinkled her nose. "What? You're so into coding that you're diary contains a million of 'em?"

Pacifica couldn't help but let out a sly smile. "Something like that."

Mabel took this as her turn to leave. "Okay, Paz, grab your journal, Scarlett and I will run to Gleeful Manor to pick up whatever supplies I deem necessary. We'll be back within the hour."

Pacifica nodded and jogged out to the car, momentarily forgetting that there was a huge mound of snow right outside the door. She snatched the journal from her duffle bag before Scarlett and Mabel drove off.

Once back inside the kitchen, Pacifica looked at Gideon. "We're gonna figure this out, okay?"

Gideon just sulked.

"Hey, Gids," she sat down next to him and patted his shoulder once or twice. "This isn't your fault. No one would've known that Dipper was sending a secret message, okay? But now, we are gonna figure it out. You up for it?"

Gideon gave her a small smile and I took that at face value.

"Let's do this."