~~~~~~~~~Dipper's POV~~~~~~~~~

Today had been pretty normal so far. (y/n)'s friend Leo had recovered recently and we got him a job here since he wanted to earn some money himself. At the moment, (y/n) and I stood behind the counter looking at the cameras, seeing Stan talking to a costumer.

"Do you have this t-shirt in my size?" I said as I lowered my voice to try and mock the costumer.

"I have something even better! Behold: my butt!!"

(y/n) and I laughed as she spoke for Stan, spending time with her always made me so happy.

"This is what you guys do for fun here?" We both turned to Leo who was leaning against a chair, a book in hand.

(y/n) rolled her eyes, though a smile still on her face. "Oh lighten up, Leo. Why don't you give it a try?"

"Ehhhh...."

Just then, Mabel came running into the room, screaming and squealing. The three of us tensed up.

"Oh no, she got into the Smile Dip again!!!" I said in a panic.

"Mabel, how many fingers am I holding up?" (y/n) asked as she showed her hand, bending two of her fingers to hide them.

"Five!!! There's always five fingers in a hand, even when bent!!"

"Well she's not wrong."

"I'm like this because today is the greatest day of my life!!!" She threw a calendar in my direction, which ... unfortunately hit me right in the face.

(y/n) took it with a snicker, reading as Leo and I glanced over.

Mabel continued her dance. "Sev'ral Timez is playing at the Gravity Falls Civic Center and Buffet!!!"

"Ohhhhh, yeah, I heard about that."

"Ugh, Sev'ral Timez? Aren't they that boy band that came a decade too late?" I groaned.

"Hate to burst your bubble, Mabel, but you know all those bands are fake, right?" (y/n) and I nodded in agreement at Leo's statement.

Mabel then frowned. "You're making my dance sad..!"

I snickered at a thought. "They's probably a machine that mass-produces them."

"Or maybe the boys are grown from pods!" (y/n) continued, both of us laughing.

However, Mabel simply crossed her arms. "You guys can't ruin this for me, Mabel's got backup!"

Candy and Grenda both ran inside with Sev'ral Times merchandise, smiles on their faces as they greeted us.

"Ready for the greatest night of our lives?!? How many times am I gonna love ya?"

"Sev'ral Timez!!!" They all cheered.

They all ran out, Candy accidentally running into the wall. "I'm okay!" She then followed the others.

Yikes.

[There should be a GIF or video here. Update the app now to see it.]

The three of us were startled when Wendy and Robbie walked into the gift shop, Wendy with a small glare on her face.

Robbie had a shy smile. "So hey, Wendy, Nate and his girlfriend are going to Lookout Point this weekend, maybe we should go too."

"Are you kidding me?!?" (y/n) and I exchanged a glance at Wendy's angry tone. "First you stand me up last night, and instead of apologizing you want me to go to Lookout Point?!?"

There were a few seconds of silence, then she let out a sigh. "Look, Robbie, I'm not sure this relationship's working. Maybe I should see other people."

Robbie's eyes quickly widened at that. "Woah woah woah, hey hey, before you do anything crazy I-I uh, want you to hear this."

He took out a disk, placing it in a boombox before looking at her. "I wrote this song just for you."

"When I think about you, I get feelings so deep. I'm tossing and turning, and you know I'm loosing sleep. You know I'm going crazy when I look into your eyes, just listen to this song and you'll be hypnotiiiiized."

The three of us were cringing so much, we didn't even know it was possible.

Wendy rubbed her eyes, her scowl replaced with a kind smile. "You know, maybe I was being a little hasty. I'll give you another chance."

"Yes, alright!!"

She placed a small kiss on his cheek. "Let me go grab my coat." And left.

I didn't have a crush on Wendy anymore, I already knew that, but I was ninety nine percent sure that Robbie had just hypnotized!

"Alright, Robbie, we saw that weird CD! What the heck are you up to?!"

"It's called romance, kid. Something you three would never understand."

"If someone as ugly as you can, we all have chances above a hundred." Leo and I snickered at (y/n)'s comment.

Robbie was about to argue, but Wendy walked back in. "You ready? I can't believe you wrote that for me!"

"I know, I'm just so insanely talented." With that, they left, leaving us confused in the room.

(y/n) grabbed the disk, inspecting it from any and every angle as I watched.

"What are you doing?" We all turned to see Mabel and her friends back in the room.

"Guys, the weirdest thing just happened. I think Robbie might be hypnotizing Wendy with his music."

"Oh Dipper, girls just like musicians! You'll understand when you're older."

"We're the same age!"

"Girls mature faster than guys, right, Grenda?"

She was kissing a Sev'ral Timez poster. "This is Grenda time!!!"

There's an image I really wished I'd never seen.

"As much as I can agree, Pinetree's right. Something's not right." (y/n) said as she stood next to me.

"Oh well, you two will soon learn. Let's go, girls!!!"

Before she could leave, (y/n) raised a hand. "Hold up."

They all stared at her confused, and so did Leo and I. However, she soon explained. "If you guys are going out that late at night, then Leo's gonna go with you."

Leo's eyes widened. "What?!"

"We're okay with that!!" Mabel quickly said with a smile, and before Leo could protect, she had already grabbed his wrist and dragged him out, (y/n) laughing out loud.

~~~~~~~~~Leo's POV~~~~~~~~~

I see (y/n) hasn't changed at all.

She knows I hate concerts!

Still though, I didn't want to be rude, so I did follow along, as much as I know how much I'd hate this night.

Right now, we were outside of the Gravity Falls Civic Center and Buffet. I had my hands in my pockets, trying not to complain much.

"Okay girls, have you all practiced your obsessed boy band scream?" Mabel asked, and they all screamed loudly, making me cringe as I covered my ears.

Some old guy screamed with them as well, which made us more scared than anything.

Mabel looked up at him. "... Just gonna ignore that."

They all ran to the ticket booth. "Tickets please!"

"Too late, kids. The show's sold out."

The three of them gasped as the curtains closed, looking around at all the "Sold out" signs hanging all over the area, and I couldn't help but feel a little bad..

Sure I didn't want to be here, but they obviously had been waiting for this night for a while now..

They shuffle off to the front of a large "Sev'ral Timez" poster that was marked by a large "Sold out" banner.

"This night is ruined!!" Grenda yelled.

Candy fell face first onto the ground, making me cringe a little. "I welcome you, Death."

Mabel looked at the two sadly, and after some thinking, she shot up to her feet with determination. "No!! I said we were going to meet Sev'ral Timez tonight, and I meant it!! And I'm not going to let a 'Keep out' sign, keep us out!!"

Her friends' eyes lit up, and I tilted my head a bit confused.

What exactly was she planning?

~~~~~~~~~Your POV~~~~~~~~~

Dipper and I entered the kitchen in search for Stan a little after Leo and the girls left, seeing him standing on a chair and placing some cans on a shelf.

"Stocking meat for the apocalypse, doodly-doo. We're all gonna die." His eyes soon landed on us, stepping down from the chair. "What's with the pacing, kids? You look even more freaked out than usual."

Dipper let out a sigh. "I don't know, you wouldn't understand.."

"Ah, c'mon." He put out two more chairs, gesturing us to sit down. "Try me!"

Dipper looked at me, to which I only shrugged, before he began to explain. "Okay, this is gonna sound weird, but we think Robbie might be brainwashing Wendy with music."

"I've seen this before.."

I raised an eyebrow at Stan's comment. "You have?"

"Her name was Carla McCorkle, Carla Hotpants McCorkle. Me and Carla baby would cut a rug together at the Juke Joint, our favorite 50's themed 1970's diner. Then one day, this new age tree huger starts playing this transcendental hippie music!"

He let out a sigh as he remembered his story, looking down with a frown. "Carla's hot pants turned into bellbottoms before I even knew what happened.. My memories get a little hallucination-y at the end, but you get the gist."

Dipper and I exchanged a glance before I spoke. "So wait, you actually believe our theory?"

"You darn right I do, and we're gonna get to the bottom of it!"

We nodded with a smile, then were kinda weirded out when Stan began to eat from one of the cans. "Right after I get to the bottom of this meat! It's apoca-licious!!"

At least we have someone else on our side.

~~~~~~~~~Leo's POV~~~~~~~~~

Not gonna lie, this didn't go how I pictured it.

Mabel had used a hairpin to pick one of the back door's locks, letting us into the backstage building as her friends called for the band.

"Hello! Sev'ral Timez?"

"We want to give you several kisses!"

I looked around, feeling a cold chill go down my spine. "Uh, Mabel? I have a bad feeling about this."

"Oh it'll be fine." She then pointed at the Sev'ral Timez' dressing room door. "Look!"

They all ran over as I lazily followed behind. "This is it, girls. You're finally going to meet the five cutest boys in the world! Dipper and (y/n) are gonna eat their words that boy bands are 'fake.'" She took a deep breath before opening the door.

And wow, were we not ready for what was in there..

Several tubes with the boys of the band in several stages of thier biological development, as if they were some larva clones.

It honestly made me sick to my stomach..

Besides the tubes was a large cage with all of the band members, acting like hamsters as we all stared in shock.

"O."

"M."

"G! That is one big hamster tube..!" Mabel pointed out.

I turned to the door as footsteps were heard, whispering. "Guys, someone's coming..!"

We all hid behind a rack of clothes as a large man with a cane walked in, a scowl on his face. "Terrible show!!! What is wrong with you boys?!? You barely even sold out the arena!!! And Deep Chris, you call that a pout?!?"

The one called Deep Chris pouted and whimpered like a little puppy, his bottom lip trembling. These are basically adults, what the heck!

"Every one of you should be ashamed of yourselves!!! Except you, Leggy P, you were really on point tonight. Here ya go, gorgeous." He threw a giant hamster treat at one of the guys, who hissed at the others as they tried to see the food.

The man then glared at the others. "As for the rest of you, remember you can always be replaced by your brothers!!" He nodded over to the tubes. "Dance for me child!!! DANCE!!!"

As told, the preteen stage clone began to dance, the man laughing maniacally but eventually choking. "Augh, my throat is killin' me. Can someone get me a lemon water?"

He slammed the door shut as he left, which forced us to fall out of our hiding spot, jeez the guy had strength.

Mabel was there closest to the cage as we heard one of the guys speak. "Who goes there?! Prepare to be danced at!!"

He started weirdly dancing towards the edge of the cage where Mabel stared wide eyed from the floor, when one of the other guys crouched in front of him, blocking him from Mabel. "Step off, Deep Chris, she's a lady! Don't disrespect her, bro, don't disrespect."

"My bad." Deep Chris three a kissy face her way before all of them posed, the girls squeaking.

I really wanted to leave, this whole situation freaked the heck out of me.

Mabel let out a small scream of excitement. "Trying not to let my brain explode!! I've always wanted to meet you guys!! But what was the deal with that scary chub-chub man?"

"Mr. Bratsman's our producer yo."

"He genetically engineered us to be the perfect boy band, G."

"But he keeps us in cages! That junk is straight brutal, girl!" Three of the five guys explained.

Don't ask which is which cuz they all look the same to me.

Mabel frowned. "That is straight brutal, Chubby Z!"

"Our one dream is to escape into the real world. For real. Yo, I heard 'bout these things called 'trees', I dunno what they are, but I wanna kiss one!"

"But we can't disobey Mr. Bratsman. He says he loves us!"

"If he loved you, he'd set you free!" They all agreed with Mabel's statement. She picked the cage's lock, opening their gate door. "Let's go right now! Me and my friends can help you escape!" 

"We're masters of stealth!!!" We all cringed as she yelled.

I sighed. "Well now se really need to hurry out."

One of the guys looked at Mabel. "Yo, you'd really do that for us, beef?"

"You can count on me!" She suddenly paused, looking up at him in confusion. "I'm sorry, did you just call me 'beef'?"

I really had a bad feeling about this..

~~~~~~~~~Your POV~~~~~~~~~

"You see, kids, music has subliminal mind control hidden in it all the time." Stan explained as we sat at the living room table, Dipper holding the disk. "If you listen closely, even the music I play in the gift shop has subtle hidden messages."

That was anything but subtle.

He took out a record player, placing it on the table. "If you wanna hear the mind controlling message, you gotta slow down the record." He snatched the disk from Dipper, placing in on the record player and scratching the disk as a result.

"... Why isn't it working?"

I rolled my eyes in annoyance, taking the disk out. "Because it's a disk, dumbass, not a record."

"I think I'll able to change it to a record." Dipper said as he took it off my hands. "It'll take me a while though."

That's when Mabel, Candy, and Grenda came in with a giant bag, Leo following behind with a tired and annoyed expression.

"Hey guys. How was the concert?" Dipper asked.

I tilted my head. "And what's in the bag?"

"Uh, money!!! Money we stole!!!" Mabel blurted out, Candy speaking after.

"We are criminals!!! We will cut you!!!"

"Let's go away from here now!!!"

With that, they went upstairs, both Dipper and I looking at Leo in confusion. He simply shrugged, and we both went home, though he still shot me occasional death glares for forcing him to go with Mabel.

The next day we both went to the shack a little late than normal, but eh. Throughout the whole day, I would see these weird flashes of blonde men around the shack, but they were gone in the blink of an eye!

I simply shrugged it off, we had other problems right now.

Dipper was at the living room table with Stan as I walked over to them. "Alright, it took all day but I converted it to a record. And now we can slow it down to see if the mind control message theory is correct! Prepare to have your mind blown!"

"Spit take, here I come!" Stan began to take a long swig of his Pit Cola.

As the song started to play, Dipper slowed it down, but it was surprisingly just the same song. We all stood there in confusion.

Stan swallowed his drink. "That's not spit worthy! What gives?!"

"What?! Is that it?!" He changed the pace back to normal before facepalming. "Ugh, I was so stupid! Of course there's no hidden mind control messages!Mabel was right, Wendy just likes the song.."

"As horrible as it and the song writer are.." I said as a bit the end of my thumb in thought. "No, there has to be something going on..!"

As if on cue, Wendy and Robby walked into the room. She gave as her usual smile and a wave. "Hey guys, forgot my keys." And headed to the gift shop.

Robbie turned to us with a confident smirk. "What's up, junior? What are you doing, trying to come up with an equation to get girls to like you?"

I was about to speak when Wendy walked back in. "Ready to go to Lookout Point?"

"Huh, am I?"

Wendy left first, giving Robbie another chance to 'insult' us. "Later, dorks! Catch you on the rewind! Heh, I just made that up."

"I'll rewind your face!!" Stan yelled as the boy left.

That's when something clicked in my mind. Of course, it was so obvious!

"Pinetree, rewind the song!"

His eyes lit up at my words before he placed a finger on the record, starting to play it backwards.

"You are now under my control. Your mind is mine."

Stan spit his soda all over Dipper which honestly made me gag a little. "Holy mackerel!!! Now there's your spit take!!!"

"Haha, I knew it!! It's mind control after all!!" Dipper cheered with a smile, which soon turned into panic. "Oh no, I've gotta save Wendy!!"

"Finally, a good reason to punch a teenager in the face!!! Let's roll!!!"

~~~~~~~~~Leo's POV~~~~~~~~~

I leaned over the counter as I read my book, minding my own business.

The man called Soon was cleaning some things on the shelf, when he picked one up and turned to me. "Hey dude? You mind giving this to Mabel? Mr. Pines probably placed it here on accident."

"Sure." I didn't really have much to do, plus it would give me a chance to see what Mabel was doing with the five guys in that band.

I went upstairs, knocking on their room door. "Mabel, you in here?"

There was a sudden silence in the room, then soft footsteps before she slightly opened the door. "Oh, heh, hey Leo.."

"Hey, Soos wanted me to give you this."

"Thanks.." She stepped out of the room, the door closing behind her as she took the small fairy figurine.

Somethings was bothering her, I could tell, and after all she did to help me, the leash I could do is try to help.

"You okay..?"

"Yeah, I- I just-"

She paused herself, looking at the ground. I waited a few seconds before she let out a heavy sigh, burying her face in her hands. "No.. I-I think I just made a big mistake.."

"What happened..?"

"You know the boy band we brought over..? Deep Chris, Chubby Z, Leggy P-"

"Yeah yeah, I know." I still don't know who's who.

"Well we promised to set them free when we knew their producer couldn't get them anymore, and he was sent to jail last night, so Candy and Grenda tried to set them free, but-!"

"... but you've grown to attached to them and you don't want to let them go.."

She gripped her arms, her feet shuffling a bit against the wooden floor.

I thought for a while, placing my thoughts into words before speaking. "Mabel, I don't know you very well, but I've seen how close you and your friends are.. And I know that you shouldn't let some guys get in between that.."

She looked up at me, not as nervous as she was before. "And if you leave these guys, and what they want is to be free, isn't it your responsibility as their friend to let them do what they've always dreamed of..?"

"You're right.. I know you are.." She looked up once more, this time in determination. "I need to let them go, no matter how much I don't want to."

She then threw her arms around me, wrapping me in a hug as I stumbled back a bit in surprise. "Thanks so much, Leo!"

I didn't have any chance to react because a second later she pulled away, walking back into the room.

Well, at least I sort of helped, I guess?

~~~~~~~~~Your POV~~~~~~~~~

We got in the car and made our way to Lookout Point. Stan sped up, making us crash as we reached our destination, and I'm honestly surprised we're all still alive.

Dipper and I hopped off the car, running to their car as he called out to them. "Wendy!!! Stop!!! Robbie's been lying to you!!!"

Wendy turned to us, her face filled with confusion: "(y/n), Dipper?!"

"Kids?! Mr. Pines?!"

Stan glared at Robbie. "That's Mr. Pines to you!!!"

"That's... what I just said..!" He stared back, confused.

"Look, Wendy, you've got to hear this." Dipper started to play the song which started off normal. After a few seconds, things got awkward, and he forced on a smile. "Uh, there's a message in there, I swear!"

"Let me just close the window-"

Dipper raised his hand, stopping Robbie's action. "Wait, wait!! Here!" He pressed a button on the recorder, finally letting them hear the message of the song.

Something changed in Wendy's eyes after hearing it, glaring at her boyfriend. "Woah, Robbie, what's that doing in our song?!?"

"Baby, I promise, I don't know anything about those messages!!! In fact, I didn't even write that song!!! I ripped off some other band!!! So, we're all good, right..?!?"

"No, we're not 'all good'!!! I don't care about the messages, you said you wrote that song for me and I actually thought it was sweet, you big liar!!!"

"I know I know, I lie about a lot of stuff like using your makeup and fighting a bear, although-"

"No, you know what?!? It's over, Robbie!!! We're through!!!"

Robbie's eyes widened. "What?!? Wendy-!!!"

"Goodbye!!!" With that, she exited the van and began walking away.

Stan let out a laugh of victory. "We won!!! Kids, this is a victory for every guy who's hands are too weak or fat to play a musical instrument!!!"

"I couldn't have done it without you guys!" His gaze soon turned to Wendy, his smile fading away.

He was about to walk over, when I placed a hand in front of him. "I've got this.."

I walked over to Wendy, giving her a small smile. "Hey, Wen.."

"W-What is it, (y/n).."

"You wanna go to my house, have a girls' night..? Maybe talk about all this..? I know you like venting on my beanbag.."

She wiped away some tears, sniffling. "Y-Yeah, I'd like that.."

I gave Dipper and Stan a small wave in goodbye before heading home with Wendy. She's always been like a big sister to me, and it's only fair I'm there for her when she's going through something like this.

Thanks for reading!!! 'Till next time!!!

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