"Kipo, you're back!" someone cried, and Kipo looked up just in time to see Mira running towards her and wrapping her up in a hug. Kipo wheezed, Mira was squeezing the air out of her lungs. Despite that, Kipo hugged back, just as hard. "I'm so glad you're safe, you too, Mabel."

Mira drew away from him Kipo, and towards Mabel, hugging her just as tightly. Mabel, however, didn't return it as eagerly as Kipo would have expected. There was a certain look on her face...

Well, whatever. There was something else Kipo had noticed, something Mira said that rubbed her the wrong way. Kipo turned slowly away from her, to Kai and Tulip, who were following close behind. There was something off about their expressions, too.

Kipo decided to just go for it, even if she wasn't sure she'd like whatever reason they gave.

"Did something happen?" she asked them, and both Tulip and Kai looked away, each looking slightly guilty.

"...It's... a lot happened," Tulip admitted, and Kipo blinked. Judging by the state of the town... yeah, she could see that. Despite herself, Kipo felt frustration bubbling up.

"But what was it?" Kipo demanded. "What happened while we were gone?"

Tulip continued to avoid her eyes, but luckily, she opened her mouth. "Well, basically-."

"Hold on," Mira interrupted, and Kipo had to stop herself from glaring at her. "We want to know what happened to you guys, too. I... I can guess what happened to Dib, but unless you want to explain three times over then you'll wait. Besides, we need to all be together to decide... what to do next."

Kipo stared at her, thinking it over, before sighing. She was exhausted, and yet... "Yeah, you're probably right."

"Alright," Mira said. "I'll gather up every else in the town, and we'll all meet up at the community centre."

Kipo nodded, if Mira thought she was acting off, she didn't say anything. Or perhaps she understood exactly what Kipo was going through.

"You all can go on ahead," Mira told them. "You're all probably hungry, so eat something if you want. I'll meet up shortly."

With that, Mira left, leaving the small group to themselves. Kipo blinked at her retreating back. Was that really their welcoming party? True, Kipo hadn't been excepting much, but where was... No. Kipo's head completely rejecting the idea before it fully formed. At the town hall. At the meeting. That was where she'd see everyone again.

Soon.

She was surprised at how hungry she was. Before walking into the kitchen, she'd been feeling nothing, but as Coraline immediately went up and started making something, she'd found she was ravenous. So ravenous as to stand up through her fatigue and make herself and meal, and then everyone else, too. After all, she couldn't just forget all of them, could she?

Coraline blinked at her as she cooked, and then looked sheepishly down at her own unrecognizable meal. Kipo couldn't even tell what that was supposed to be, but she only shook her head and offered Coraline some of the chicken soup she had made. Coraline took it without arguing.

Kipo and Coraline passed the bowls out, but when she got to Kai, she paused, staring at him.

"Oh, Kai," she said, startled. "I haven't realized that you were... er... did you take a break from your project?"

Kai coughed on his soup. "Huh? Oh that... er, yeah, I wasn't getting anywhere on it, so I decided to leave it alone for the time being until I could think of thing, I guess?"

As Kai spoke, Kipo nodded along until he got to the last part of his explanation, where it kind of sounded like it turned into an excuse.

"You... guess?" Kipo repeated, but she shook her head before Kai could explain further. "Nevermind. I'm glad you're out. I had been worried about you."

Kai smiled, but it looked more like a painful grimace than an actual smile. "Yeah... I kind of want to go back to working on that thing though. I feel as though it's important somehow."

"I'm sure you'll figure it out," Kipo assured him. "Just... figure it out when you actually want to figure it out, okay? Not because you just feel horrible."

"Well, yeah..."

"There should be a balance," Tulip cut in from the other side of Kai. Looking over to her, Kipo suddenly remembered that she had been passing out bowls, but Coraline waved her off. Apparently, Coraline had picked up Kipo's slack, so Kipo sat back down, feeling slightly guilty.

Shaking out her head, Kipo just decided to continue the conversation. "Yeah, I think so, too. I think you can use your hobbies to ward off grief, but when they become a crutch, then you need to step back, and look for something healthier."

"Yeah..." Tulip agreed. She was staring down into her bowl, and so was Kipo. When Kai looked between them, he noticed they had the same kind of look on their faces. He frowned, unsure what to say next. Thankfully, though, someone else spoke up, freeing Kai from any decision he would have to make.

Unfortunately, it was Six.

"What machine?" she asked, and the whole room looked over to her, perched precariously on Luz's shoulder. She wasn't eating, Kipo noticed.

However, Six's eyes were fixed on one person: Kai. She stared at him closely, practically pinning him down with her gaze until he was squirming uncomfortably. When he made no move to answer, Six spoke again.

"What machine?" she repeated. "I wouldn't ask if I didn't think it was important. What. Machine?"

Kai, and Tulip, too, Kipo realized, stared at Six with their mouths agape. Eventually, Tulip swallowed.

"Er... is that... um..." Tulip glanced at Kipo. "Is she... like us?"

Kipo perked up. Oh, that was a good question, but... "No, probably not."

"This is Six!" Luz cheerfully introduced. "She's my..."

Luz trailed off as she seemed to remember what Mira had told them. "Uh, actually. I'll tell you later. But she's from this world, I promise."

Six sighed, settling down on Luz's shoulder. "I suppose I'll wait until the novelty has worn off to ask. I'll come back to this later, Mr Kai.

Kai looked startled. "Huh? Yeah, o-okay, I guess. Um... to be honest, I don't really know what the machine is. It kind of looks like a printer, but I don't think it prints paper, it... well, I don't know. There's some sort of weird flower print of it."

Something flashed in Six's eyes. "...Ah, I see. I can help, if you want. This machine seems... important."

Kai shrugged. "Uh... yeah, okay. If you say so.

"Ooh, who made soup?"

All the attention in the room finally moved from Six to the newcomers in the dining hall: Fei Fei, Anne and Mira. Kipo's eyes narrowed in concern as she watched them file in. When Mira finished taking out the chairs that wouldn't be used so they could all sit closer together, she sat down on the other side of Kipo, and Kipo gave her a confused look.

"Where's everyone else?" Kipo asked, and Mira sighed, shaking her head. She stood up again, and slapped her hands on the table to get everyone's attention, as if it hadn't already been on her.

"...Alright, I guess this is as good a time to start as any," she announced. The room was dead silent. No one was eating anymore. It felt like no one was even breathing. "First, a rundown of what happened while we were separated. I'll... I'll go first."

"Er, actually..." Luz awkwardly interrupted, raising her hands. Mira blinked at her, like she'd been so determined she'd forgotten that there were new people here. "I don't think we all know each other. We should go around and introduce ourselves, right?"

For a minute, Mira looked like she was going to say no, and Kipo couldn't really blame her. She wanted to hear what Mira wanted to say just as much as Mira wanted to say it. But, eventually, Mira shook out her head.

"No, yeah, you're right," Mira said. "Sorry, I'd forgotten about that. We'll go in around the table, I guess: first up, I'm Mira... and I guess I should say something about myself, so I'm a gamer, I guess. Once I got stuck in a video game called The Hollow, so... that was fun."

Only Luz, Mabel, Coraline and Kris looked stunned at this revelation. After all, Mira loved to bring it up.

Eventually, Fei Fei shook her head, and started speaking, too. "Er... my name is Fei Fei, and..." Fei Fei paused for a minute, thinking. "Hm... I had gone to the moon, once?"

Before the rest of them could even begin to be surprised, Anne picked up after her. "I'm Anne, and before this I was trapped in a world called Amphibia, with amphibians."

"I remember seeing you there!" Luz remembered. "That's when I was stuck in the Boiling Isles and trying to become a witch... I guess I'm still technically trying to become a witch. This is Six, she's, like, a wizard with magic here!... Er, pun not intended."

When Luz finished, she paused, looking over to Mabel to continue. Mabel stared back until Luz remembered.

"Oh yeah!" Luz cried, looking embarrassed. "I'm, Luz, by the way."

Mabel giggled. "Ha! And now it's my turn. I'm Mabel, and before this me and my brother, Dipper, were in visiting our Grunkle in Gravity Falls. I got a pig called Waddles, and he was so cute, I drew him a bunch so you all have to see him! He's adorable! Anyway, we also stopped a weird triangle demon guy named Bill from taking over the world, I guess."

"...Wha... Well, okay, I guess..." Coraline said. "Well, I'm Coraline, NOT Caroline, and, uh... nothing crazy like all of that happened to me, but I did move into this weird house with this... 'other mother', who pretended to be a better version of my mom to lure me to her so she could kill me.... Huh. Actually, U guess tat sounds pretty crazy, too."

After that, they all turned to Kris, and after a couple seconds of silence where Kris used their mysterious way to communicate, everyone nodded. Kipo blinked. Even though Kris hadn't done anything, she realized she knew what they had been saying, too.

Weird. But what they had told them sounded fun: a weird, fun adventure in a bunch of different worlds with their strange monster friend group. Though, Kipo could tell there was a lot Kris wasn't telling them. Before she could ask, though, Tulip continued.

"Huh," Tulip said, and she sounded as confused as Kipo did about that. "Well, I'm Tulip and for a long train I was on a therapy train that tried to kill me a couple times, but eventually I thought I learned whatever 'lesson' it was trying to teach me, but NOPE, it just spit me out back here! GREAT!"

At the end of her explanation, or more accurately, rant, Tulip crossed her arms and sunk down into her seat. After a minute, Kai started.

"...I'm Kai..." he said. "And I was with Mira and Adam in The Hollow. You know, if this IS a video game, it's not a very good one, because it didn't give me my cool firs powers back. I don't know why I would ever play a game that doesn't give me fire powers?!"

"So... you'd rather go back to The Hollow?" Mira asked, smirking at him. Kai frowned.

"Well... okay, good point," he sighed.

Kipo shook her head. "I'm Kipo. I use to live with my dad in the burrow, before everyone there got kidnapped, and I had to fight his other kid, Scarlemagne, before we became friends and teamed up to defeat the even eviler person called Amelia. There was a long and epic battle, but eventually we prevailed, and Amelia was defeated, even though we lost-."

Kipo's eyes snapped open as a dark emotion overtook her. Scarlemagne. He... He...

"We lost..."

How could she forget? What had happened that day... how could see forget what Scarlemagne did for her? For all of them?!

"I..."

"...Anyway," Mira interrupted, drawing Kipo out of her thoughts and memories. Kipo turned to her, and welcomed the distraction. But still, now that she remembered, the mantra repeated in the back of her mind: how could she forget?! "Now that we're all introduced, we need to get down to business. Again, I'll start with that happened while you were gone, Kipo and Mabel, and get the rest of you up to speed."

Mira seemed to hesitate, unsure of whether or not she should really destroy the nice atmosphere they had all created... but before long she burrowed on. No, she had to. They had to know this.

"A couple of days ago, Kai came out of his basement because he thought there was a ghost," Mira started, and Kipo turned to give him a surprise look. That was why he came out? "At-At first we didn't believe him, but then Wirt came forward, too, and the ghost revealed itself to all of us. We decided to split into groups to find it, and catch it, but, well, it had disappeared. After that, we all went to bed, intending to try something else tomorrow. But throughout the night, and for most of the next morning, there was a terrible storm, as you could probably see from outside.

"As the storm was raging on, we couldn't leave our homes until it passed. However, when we did eventually escape, we all went around to find everyone else, but the only people around were me, Tulip and Kai until Fei Fei and Anne showed up. Dipper, Norman and Wirt had completely disappeared."

Kipo's eyes widened. "What? They just disappeared? Did they leave or were they...?"

"They left," Mira confirmed. "They went off... somewhere, with the ghost of someone to... I don't know, find something. Dipper had left a note in his room."

Inwardly, Kipo breathed a sigh of relief. That sounded... a lot better than the things she had been worrying about. However, as she looked back up at Mira's face, the worry returned. That did not look like an expression of someone who thought everything was fine.

However, it was Mabel who pressed her, this time.

"So, they just went somewhere, right?" she asked. "But they're fine, though, obviously. They just haven't gotten back yet... right?"

Mira bit her lip. "I'm not so sure..." she said slowly. "Dipper had said that they would probably return in a week, and well... But not just that. He mentioned they were going through the caves, but when we went to look for them at the caves, they had been completely flooded. So unless they could swim through all that... and also hold their breath for a really long time, then... well, I just don't know."