AN: I know I know, still no Hopes chapter 3. I'm working on it! I did re-upload chapter 1 with a few tweaks, check it out maybe?

So this one-shot is based on the very talented Elentori's human journal AU art. If you want to see, just take these links and replace the spaces with periods. (If you're having a hard time finding the spaces, they're between 'art' and 'tumblr', and 'tumblr' and 'com' in both links.) Title taken from the second image; it is also the cover for this fic! I do not own the art, Elentori does!

elentori-art tumblr com/tagged/humanized-journal

elentori-art tumblr com/post/123413206372/poor-unfinished-journal-3-too-precious-for-this

But I'm really excited for this, so let's go! Oh, and there will be more info about this fic in the AN at the bottom of the page.

Song for this chapter: You Don't Dream in Cryo… by James Horner from the Avatar soundtrack. (Okay, the whole soundtrack, really.)

"Ugh, Grunkle Stan, why are you making me do this… Always picking me for these dumb chores…" Dipper Pines mumbled to himself as he trudged through the woods, balancing a stack of wooden signs in one hand and holding a hammer in the other. "I'm not even good at getting the nails to stick in the trees."

He paused and set the signs down, pulling a nail from his pocket and whacking it with the hammer until it stuck out of the trunk of a pine so he could hang the sign from it. With a huff, he picked up the load again and set off to find another tree, grumbling about how no one would ever even see these in the middle of the woods.

This was a creepy part of the woods, he thought as he looked around, hearing the breeze whistle around the trees. Really, did hikers and scammable tourists really venture into this particular section of the woods?

Dipper doubted it greatly. "This is ridiculous!" he complained aloud to no one again. He stopped next to an especially tall tree and dumped the advertisements on the ground, throwing his hands up in an exasperated gesture and sliding down the trunk until he was sitting. "It's pointless! I could be finishing that new mystery novel I was reading. Ugh, reminder, never take a stop in the gift shop when all you're looking for is a can of soda. You might get assigned absolutely useless chores."

He lightly thumped his head back against the trunk, then scrambled away, heart rate skyrocketing when he heard the dull 'thud' reverberate through the trunk and echo back. The tree is… Fake? Metal and hollow? Slowly (it's not like a fake tree was gonna hurt him, right?) he crept closer and grabbed his hammer. Experimentally, he tapped the trunk with the hammer, then drew back. Same noise, except more metallic, more metal-on-metal.

But nothing surprising happened, so of course the curious boy decided to investigate. He walked in a circle around the trunk, running his hands over the sculpted bark that was surprisingly convincing. But then he found a slight crack. Tracing it with a finger, he found that no, it wasn't a crack but the outline of the edge of some rectangular panel.

His heart was beating fast. This seemed more exciting than some old mystery novel now.

Dipper picked up his hammer again and wedged the prongs on the back into the small gap and pulled. With a creak and a puff of dust (to which Dipper let out a quiet sneeze), it opened. Frantically waving away the gray cloud, the twelve-year-old stood on tiptoe to peer inside.

There was some 80's looking technology nestled in the compartment in the tree, all covered in cobwebs and dust. With shaking fingers, Dipper reached out and flicked a few switches. When nothing happened, he flicked a few more, then poked some buttons.

"Huh wonder how long this has been here…" he said under his breath. "It sure is old looking tech, and it hasn't been touched in ages… Wonder what it used to do, anyways. And why it's in a fake tree."

Stepping back, he looked around, then found a rock about the size of his head. It took every echo of his strength to roll it over to the base of the tree, but he managed it, then stepped on top so he could get a better look inside. Dust coated several buttons that he hadn't touched yet, and he ran a thumb over them, startled to find that they were inscribed with words. OPEN, said one. The other was emblazoned OPEN AND UNFREEZE.

Knowing it wouldn't do anything, Dipper tapped this button.

And subsequently fell backwards off his rock when he heard a 'whoosh' of air from behind him. Scrambling to look, he found that a panel about five feet by two had opened in the ground.

"Oh my god," he whispered to himself, trembling slightly from excitement. "Oh my god." This was exactly like something out of one of his books he read! But that also meant it could be dangerous… Ever resourceful, Dipper grabbed the hammer and held it up, ready to smash whatever he'd find in that hole. An alien? A stash of treasure? A body?

He crept closer, grip on the hammer tightening as he did. And he found inside…

A frost-covered glass tube-tank-thing (that was the only way he could think of describing it.) There had to be something inside. He reached out a shaky hand. Oh gosh the temperature kept decreasing the closer he got, and wisps of sublimed vapor were trailing from the tank in the warm summer air.

Dipper's fingers made contact with the freezing surface, then wiped away a portion of the frost.

There was a body inside. But this time, he'd been possibly expecting it, so he didn't jump back. His heart just sped up. He cleared more of the glass, trying to get a good look at the person inside.

It appeared to be an older teenager. Maybe about nineteen or so? Dipper couldn't tell. He (Dipper was pretty sure it was a he) had fluffy reddish-brown hair, a bright rusty color. His eyes were closed and his mouth was half open, displaying decidedly non-human canines, two sharp points on each side of his upper jaw (alien?). The teen was dressed in a rust-red-maroon colored coat, with what appeared to be a suit underneath. His clothes seemed too big for his body, and he appeared to have some interesting tattoos. To top off the oddity, he had a monocle over his left eye, seemingly floating without touching his skin.

But the most important fact was that he wasn't breathing.

Was he dead? Had his body been frozen for some weird scientific study reason? But then why was he dressed so fancily, and what the heck was the point of the monocle? All these questions, plus a few dozen more, ran through Dipper's mind as he stared curiously. Then some unseen crack around the middle of the tank split open and frigid air burst out in opaque clouds.

"Oh man oh man! I broke it!" yelped Dipper as he scooted backwards until his back touched the metal tree. He was still clutching the hammer. He stared at the frothing white vapors, reminded of the dry ice from science class. It was dissipating quickly in the hot air, though, and Dipper, now sweating profusely, even after he'd been chilled to the bone, slowly moved closer once more.

The body hadn't changed much, except now Dipper could see he was wearing a knee-length trench coat, and his pants were the same red color. He also was lacking shoes, tattoos of words even on the top of his feet. His hands were lost in the too-long sleeves, but the creature's toenails looked sharper than a human's.

"Huh," Dipper mused, kneeling and sitting back on his heels.

And then the body drew a deep breath and the eyes snapped open.

This time, Dipper did let out a very high pitched scream and fell over backwards, scrambling to get away and only succeeding in lamely scooting a few feet.

A hand clutched at the ground at the edge of the chamber, and then so did another, and a shivering body soon flopped on the grass, tangled up in the trench coat. After what seemed like an almost absurd amount of time, the creature got his limbs to work right. Dipper guessed it didn't help that he was shaking like a leaf; he himself knew all too well that when your body didn't want to cooperate, everything took longer.

But eventually the being sat up, blinking rather serenely. His eyes were freaky; a pale, gold-yellow. Kind of like the shade that most glow-in-the-dark objects were when it was daytime. But he also had no pupils to speak of. Dipper would have guessed him blind if he wasn't being inspected so intently by this guy.

But he'd stopped trying to scramble away; the other was decidedly non-threatening. Especially since at the moment he was sitting with his head cocked, one of his fangs sticking out of his closed mouth, trembling intently. Probably still left-over cold from being in stasis for who knew how long. Plus he was still a good three feet away.

Then he extended his neck towards Dipper and sniffed. Dipper raised one eyebrow, looking confused, still sprawled on his back, one hand clutching his chest.

"You smell like anxiety."

"Ex…. Excuse me?" That had thrown Dipper for a loop for sure. "Wait… You can talk?"

"I talk, yes!" the creature said, bobbing his head enthusiastically. "Not talk good, though." He had some weird accent, half German and half something that Dipper couldn't place, something he'd never heard before. And his voice seemingly cracked just as much as Dipper's.

"Um…" Dipper didn't really know how to respond to that. Then his eyes bugged even further when he saw some of the creature's tattoos fade into new images and words. He didn't notice Dipper staring, because his attention had been drawn to shaking his hands out of his too-large sleeves.

"I sorry. I unfinished. Small, funny voice, no full sentences." He looked a little downcast for a moment before perking up again. "But I Drei! Who you?" He moved closer to Dipper, who was too busy being in shock to back away.

"Um… I'm Dipper. And… Drei like… The German word for 'three?'" When he'd heard the name coupled with the accent, he wondered.

Drei nodded. "Yes! Yes, Three! That me!"

"And, um, why are you named Three?"

"I have brothers. Two; I littlest. So I three!" He hopped closer again. "Why you scared? I no hurt you!"

Dipper sat up, still intensely suspicious and paranoid. "Um… Not exactly supposed to talk to strangers, you know, especially ones that just came out of cryo chambers in the middle of a really weird part of the woods. So… Maybe I should, ya know… Go…" He got to his feet, like he was staring down a predator and not a rather ridiculous looking teenager.

"You… Leave? It okay, I wait for Creator." Drei had ceased his shivering at long last and crossed his legs, looking happily at the trees around him, one knee bouncing a little.

"Wait… Creator? What do you mean by 'creator'? And how the heck are your tattoos changing? How is that monocle levitating in front of your eye?" Dipper asked from his position by the tree. His paranoia and curiosity were fighting a fierce battle in his head, but he was pretty sure curiosity was winning this time.

"Creator! Man who made me and brothers. Used magic and here I is!" He then looked down, pulling at the neck of his shirt to stare at his chest. Then he shrugged. "I know some of things. Brothers complete, they know more of things. I has incomplete data and observations. Creator never finished me. I put in stasis, he say he was leaving. Poof. Now I's here!"

"… I knew this town was hiding weird stuff." Dipper could say nothing more as he watched the tattoos shift again. He noticed that some of the marks didn't change. Like the three freckles in a triangular pattern under Drei's right eye, or the weird diagram on his wrist that he could see peeking out of the adjusted sleeves. He blinked, wanting to stop staring at the peculiar magic marks, but… Dang this was cool. His very own mystery…

Who was currently moving to sit right next to him.

"Ack!" Dipper spluttered and moved away. Drei watched him move, still smiling. "What wrong, Dip?"

"No, no, it's Dipper."

"Like Dip better."

"Dip-per."

"Dip."

"Argh." Dipper waved a hand in surrender and sat down, a little further away. Oh man what am I gonna do with this dude?! Take him back to the Shack? Out loud, he just said, "So, um, you know how long you've been in there, Drei?"

Drei cocked his head again, thinking. "Was frozen in 1982. What year is?"

"It's 2012… You've been frozen for thirty years, Drei…" Dipper was stunned… They had that tech in the early 80's? Wasn't cryogenic freezing for things like humans not supposed to exist even now?

But here he was speaking to a non-human entity with magic tattoos who claimed to have been made by someone. The cryogenics was the believable part.

"Oh. What do now?" Drei looked a little lost. "You think Creator come back?"

Dipper gulped. "Um… Not sure. Well….. Okay fine, follow me, we'll take you back to the Mystery Shack and see if my great uncle knows your Creator. Sound good?"

Drei nodded, grinning with those sharp fangs. "Much good! Very! I follow!" His tattoos shifted again, and he gained what looked like a red ink (or blood) stain on his left cheek. And… Dark, slashed words right on his throat.

TRUST NO ONE!

Dipper shivered. Those words, yet here he was conversing with a man-made being in the woods… About to lead him home… Oh boy this would be fun.

"Okay, let's get going, man." Dipper got up and poked a button to close the hatch in the ground, then shut the panel in the tree. "Just like I found it. Minus one magical guy. Okay."

Waving a hand, he set off down the path he came, having grabbed the last of the signs and his hammer. Drei followed, but not in a straight line. He had to inspect all the things, as he put it, like a dog off the leash. Dipper couldn't keep up, he kept cricking his neck trying to keep track of the teen. He was acting a bit like Mabel on a sugar high, except quieter.

"Geez, Drei, calm down!" Dipper called after five minutes of this energetic darting. "I know you just woke up, but you're gonna find trouble!"

"Oh, I knows these woods! Like back of hand, hahaha!" As he flashed by, he waved a hand under Dipper's nose, showing a sketch of the forest on the back.

"Very funny," Dipper said with a sigh. Oh, there was the Shack up ahead. He heard Drei skid to a halt behind him.

Time to see how this was going to go.

Grunkle Stan took it surprisingly well. When his great-nephew showed up at the door, followed by a peculiar teen, he actually had to clamp down a look of recognition. Dipper had caught it and raised an eyebrow, but didn't comment.

"Aw Dipper who's this?" Mabel asked, walking into the gift shop. "You already making friends?"

"Mabel, uh, this is Drei. He's…" He lowered his voice. "I found him in one of those sci-fi cryogenic tubes in the woods in a secret compartment. I kid you not. Somehow I accidentally unfroze him, and, well, he's… Enthusiastic." He eyed Drei as Grunkle Stan swatted him lightly with a broom for trying to climb onto the counter. "He's some kind of artificial… Record… Keeper?" Dipper shook his head.

"Well, I'm gonna make him a sweater. I can make a red one! What should it have on it?" Of course this was Mabel's first thought process.

"Well, his name is German for 'three,' so maybe the number three?" Dipper hadn't known him long enough to know.

"Ooooh good idea! I'm gonna go say hi." She skipped over to Drei, who was trying on a blue and white pine tree hat. "Hi there!"

She startled him and he dropped the hat, then picked it up and put it back. "Hello! Who is you?" He looked interested in the small girl in front of him, just as he had with Dipper.

"I'm Mabel!"

"Mabel? I like name!"

Dipper called out, "Aw hey come on, she gets her full name!"

"Aw thanks!" Mabel giggled. "You're funny."

"Thanks you! Hear that, Dip? I is funny!" Mabel snorted when she heard that.

"Ha you're already teasing my bro-bro and you hardly know him! I like you already!" She laughed, then gasped. "Oh my gosh. Drei! You have sweater paws! Well, coat paws but same thing!" She pointed at the way his sleeves completely covered his hands.

"Sweater…. Paws?"

"Yeah! Like your sleeves are too long!" She tucked her own hands into her sweater and held them under her chin like a begging kitten. "It make you look adorable!"

Drei drew back. "I… Is… Adorable?" He looked supremely confused, and Dipper felt a bit bad for him.

"Yes. Now come with me, I've gotta make you a sweater. Dip, you're in charge of lunch!" She grabbed Drei by the hand and dragged him from the room, him shouting "waits up!" as he was tugged along.

Dipper sighed, but had to crack a smile. At least his sister's crazy energy wasn't focused on him for once.

"Where did you find him, kid?"

"Huh?" Dipper was startled by his uncle coming up behind him. He looked up. "You… You know about him, don't you? You recognized him." Stan said nothing. Dipper continued. "Drei… Said something about a 'Creator,' like someone made him. Maybe you know who–"

"We've met." Stan cut him off. "But… How? How did you find this guy? I literally just told you to hang up signs, and you come back with a humanoid automaton?"

"I found a panel in a fake tree in the woods and it opened a cryogenic tank and I didn't mean to!" Dipper blurted out. "But… Automaton? What?"

"Kid, Drei is a magical being created as a self-operating recording device. Yes before you ask he's really alive and all that junk, but he was made with magic for storing information. Maybe… I dunno, maybe he can teach you kids some cool stuff. Probably knows a lot about the town." Stan smiled all of a sudden.

"Here, go make lunch for your sister and new friend. He's… He's staying with us. Don't ask why, kid, 'cause I ain't giving up answers right now."

Dipper had been expecting this, but it was still a let down. "Okay Grunkle Stan." He turned and walked into the kitchen, disappearing from view.

Stan looked after him, hit by a wave of gratitude. He would never have discovered Drei had it not been for Dipper. If… If he hadn't… He didn't want to think of it. But now he didn't need to worry, and cracked a smile. This one seemed different than the One he knew. Maybe fun to have around.

Still he was grateful that Soos and Wendy weren't around to see. He'd pull them aside and explain later, after he got his thoughts together.

This was going to be interesting, to say the very least.

Drei was an incredibly messy eater. After thoroughly sniffing his sandwich, he'd tried to shove it in his mouth all at once, then nearly choked, and pulled it back out again to a twin chorus of 'ewwww'.

"I sorry. Only eat soup and beans before now. This new." Mabel demonstrated the proper way to eat a sandwich and all was okay after that. They spent the afternoon watching Drei's reaction to television. His eyes had grown as wide as saucers and he was entranced. Dipper noted that his tattoos seemed to change quicker as he stared at the screen.

But before long, it was bedtime. Mabel had completed Drei's sweater, a golden 3 on the front, and she had, once again, made his sleeves too long on purpose.

"Why my clothes never fit?" Drei asked as he held up the sweater.

"Because my sister is a big goof," said Dipper, looking up with a grin from the book he was reading.

Mabel stuck her tongue out. "Like I said earlier. It's cute!"

Drei took off his long coat, draping it over a chair and showing that he was wearing a white long sleeved dress shirt. Next to go was the rust waistcoat and his (too long) tie. When he began unbuttoning his shirt, Dipper looked skeptical. "Uh, man, you sure you don't need some privacy?"

"No, no, I is good. Creator want to read his notes sometime, not have me speak them. I is used to stares."

And it was obvious why he would get them. His entire body was covered in the journal entry-like tattoos and sketches. Like someone had taken the field journal of a researcher and put it on his skin. Guess that was what Stan had meant by 'record keeper.'

"Woah, Drei, that's cray-cray!" Mabel said with a gasp. "The… Shapeshifter…" she read from a spot near his shoulder. Drei blushed red.

"Is 'cray-cray' good thing?" He looked reassured when Mabel nodded.

"Hey Mabel watch what they can do, " Dipper said. As if on command, the tattoos shifted, revealing a spread of hexagons filled with symbols covering his back, and the words SECURITY ROOM scrawled across his shoulders. Mabel gasped in appreciation.

"That. Is. So. Cool!"

Dipper had noticed that yeah, the diagram on his left forearm didn't change, but he figured he'd ask later. "Yeah it is really cool. Hey man did you, like, have to get those all… Put on you? That would hurt."

"No, Creator say the words and they appear! I is tuned to what he want to record. Is magic, no hurt." Drei then wriggled into his sweater, plucking the monocle out of thin air and dropping it on top of his bundle of clothes as the final touch.

"Mind if I ask more questions in the morning?" Dipper asked with a yawn. Drei shook his head.

"No mind! Questions is what I was maked for!"

There was a knock at the door. "Come in!" Mabel called cheerfully. Stan poked his head in.

"Hey you three. Just bringing up the sleeping bag and pillow for Drei. I assume you want to stay in here, kid?"

"Oh yes pleases!" Drei said with a nod that further messed with his hair.

Stan laughed. "Yeesh kid don't dislocate your neck! I dunno how to fix that." He tossed him the sleeping bag and pillow, and Dipper got up and helped get it set up between the twin's beds.

"Night, I'll wake ya up for breakfast in the morning." And with that, Stan went back down the stairs. Drei climbed into his sleeping bag and curled up like a dog while Dipper got the light and Mabel slipped under her covers.

Before they fell asleep, one last mystery was uncovered. "Drei… Your eyes are glowing in the dark."

"They does that," murmured a sleepy voice, and Dipper watched the greenish orbs move, then saw when Drei closed his eyes. The eerie light still filtered through the thin skin.

Okay, that's a bit creepy. But Dipper could handle creepy. He simply lay back in his bed and stared at the ceiling. Right before he dozed off, Dipper mumbled to himself. "Who knows what other secrets are waiting to be unlocked around here?"

And, unbeknownst to all of them, including Drei himself… Those words in an unfamiliar blue ink in a perfect replica of Dipper's handwriting scrawled across Drei's upper arm, along with a portrait of the twelve year old, looking exactly as it would had Dipper himself drawn it on paper.

Who knows what other secrets are waiting to be unlocked around here?

AN: Okay how was that? Hope you liked it; I'd really, really appreciate reviews! Just please no flames, though I always accept constructive criticism.

ANYWAYS!

This is a series of non-chronological one-shots that will fit into what the canon TV show would have been like if the journals were three humanoids.

But I'm gonna need help coming up with the ideas for which scenes to add/rewrite! So in the reviews, I'd love to get suggestions for which scenes to write! This will give me time to expand on this AU and fit everything together; I'm making a lot of it up from scratch! There are only two requirements:

1. No shipping that's not in the show! So basically no non-canon ships. I'm not really in the mood for getting into that.

2. The suggestions must fit into the canon show somehow! Whether that's re-writing episodes to fit the AU (for example, writing Drei into the scene with the gnomes, or Scary-Oke, or something of the sort) or having a simple idea about the interactions of the new characters with the canon characters, I'd really appreciate ideas that don't deviate too much from the canon!

Oh, also keep it T or below please! I don't write sexual content.

Thanks, and I hope you guys leave some cool ideas!