The Scuttlebutt Fog

> *After a dark night towards the end of Summer, an unearthly, carpentry-addled tale of vengeance from beyond the wave strikes Gravity Falls, as it has once every fifty years. Pacifica, Dipper, Mabel and the Grunkles soon realise it's up to them to break another curse hanging over the town, rubbing shoulders with the only man who seems to be able to make sense of something this strange. And the only one who saw it originate, a hundred years ago...*
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## The Scuttlebutt Fog

### AO3 URL

https://archiveofourown.org/works/31528370/chapters/77996378

### FF.net URL

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/13888691/Episode-Nine-The-Scuttlebutt-Fog

***The Scuttlebutt Fog*** is the 9th episode of Return to the Falls.

It is preceded by ***Chaos, Terror & Vanilla Creme*** and is proceeded by ***The Line***.

### Synopsis

After a late night trip to the cliffs, Dipper and Pacifica soon discover a thick fog rolling into Gravity Falls - and with it, an invasion of mysterious, vengeful spirits with flat tails and bucked teeth, that appears to rear its furry head every fifty years. The mysterious fog and its furry revenants seem to be coming from Scuttlebutt Island, where they also happen to find an abandoned logging camp and a mysterious harbour, with a surprising secret.

Together with the aid of Quentin Trembley and Fiddleford McGucket, the family are forced to confront a particularly bizarre enemy with particularly bizarre means, while Ford begins to wonder just how much he's been missing - and the two great contrasts of Gravity Falls seem to keep cropping up in our hero's minds.

### Chapter Titles

1. The Big Picture
2. Visibility
3. The Threat
4. The First Victims
5. Carnage
6. Self Esteem
7. Wisdom
8. The Island
9. Docked and Loaded
10. Bewildered Retreat
11. McGucket's Memoirs
12. Knock for More Info
13. Tourist Traps and Trains
14. Wings and Wisdom
15. The Repairs
16. The Battle of Northwest Manor
17. Dire Straits
18. Air Raid
19. Clean Up
20. Resolve
21. Rebuild
22. Au Revoir

### Character Revelations

* Candy and Grenda revealed Dipper's interest in Pacifica shortly after the Pines left Gravity Falls.
* Dipper is prone to ogling Pacifica.
* Dipper's father was a hippy growing up, largely to rebel against Shermie - who was in The US Navy.
* Dipper's father met his mother at age 13, and they were together ever since.
* Dipper's parents are both somewhat anti-establishment and enjoy computers.
* Grandpa Shermie is not only still alive, but retired and living in Hawaii.
* Shermie is said to always wear a suit or tie.
* Gravity Falls is haunted by a fog every fifty years, something Ford is aware of but never had the chance to investigate.
* Tate McGucket was once a mob boss.
* The Tackle Shop is also run by Al Backle - making up the canon name of ***Tate & Backle's Bait and Tackle.***
* The Gravity Falls lake has had at least 3 Mary Celeste incidents.
* Befufftlefumpter left behind a series of framed English Digestive Biscuits as a handover document and literally nothing else.
* Sheriff Blubs has a collection of snap bracelets.
* Blubs and Durland are shown to have memory problems.
* Mabel and Dipper are both users of LibraryOfOurs, a fanfiction website.
* Aubelita insists on any guests having cookies and milk.
* Stan was responsible for amputing Ford's foot.
* Tyler once again shows trust in the kids' ability to investigate - if anything, more than he does in the Grunkles.
* Scuttlebutt Island is shown to be the site of a lumber camp - one almost exclusively for Northwest Manor.
* Scuttlebutt Island was where McGucket built the Gobblewonker, due to the harbour, warehouses and floodlights - which he had a hand in restoring.
* Tyler is still struggling with the memory wipe he experienced following It Came From Thrifty's.
* McGucket is aware of many state secrets due to his habit of Dumpster Diving when he was homeless.
* McGucket is on much friendlier terms with the town than the Northwests; Dan regularly visits to help maintain the old Northwest Manor.
* McGucket's far saner - but absent minded and still prone to bouts of eccentricity.
* The Crawlspace is in the same condition in which it was left after Syndicate, and is once again home to the town's weirdness.
* Pascoe makes a return and is shown to have further knowledge about the town's history - being the only creature to see over 150 years of it.
* Nathaniel Northwest's irrational actions included sinking several ships to secure a certain type of lumber.
* The Northwests and Fundhausers made a signficant amount of revenue on tourist traps during the 1860s.
* Quentin Trembley was a beaver herder in his spare time.
* Quentin Trembley's peanut brittle casing was also a beaver deterrant.
* The gold vats seen in Syndicate were originally for manufacturing peanut brittle.
* Quentin now commands an army of geese. And a team of goose mechanics.
* McGucket has been manufacturing weaponry for the Government, and owns a few pieces himself.
* McGucket reveals he's planning to reopen the Gravity Falls Railroad.

### References

* The entire episode is largely a pastiche of John Carpenter's The Fog.
	+ The 'fate' of Al Backle mirrors that of Al Williams.
	+ The revenant mariners of the Fog become pirate beavers in the Gravity Falls universe.
* Soos references *The Game*. Like most references to The Game, this one wasn't funny.
* Soos mentions Threepac, who went to live underground. An obvious reference to Tupac and conspiracies concerning his death.
* Ford's discrediting of evidence from 1963 implies that the 60s' Counterculture movement was alive and well in Gravity Falls - with any hallucinogenic aspects fully intact.
* The *Mary Celeste* is now synonymous with abandoned ships.
* The attack of the beavers briefly references *Fire Coming Out of the Monkey's Head* - a spoken word track from the author's favourite band, Gorillaz.
* *LibraryOfOurs* is, of course, a reference to Archiveofourown.
* Abuelita's insistence of being *A little lady, you know* is a repeated quote from *Little Misfortune*.
* Stan briefly mentions having lost his hands. Or imagined losing his hands. This is a reference to Gravity Falls' *Little Gift Shop of Horrors*, and its somewhat vague placement in canon,
* *Every step she took, the beavers followed, shuffling along like a brain-dead dancing troupe from 1983. -* A reference to Michael Jackson's *Thriller.*

### Extra Artwork

Background to Title One - 'lights on'Background to Title Two - 'lights On'Title Three - 'lights on'Quentin being... QuentinBackground for Title 4Golf CartFightOne of many geese.