foundnthestars

[foundnthestars]

hiii happy birthday pines twins. long dormant gravity falls hyperfix you have been reawakened.

ID [A drawing of Dipper and Mabel Pines, waist up. Dipper is holding the journal and looking nervously at Mabel; Mabel is grinning and has her arm around Dipper. There is a yellow background with a white triangle] END ID

[foundnthestars]

Over the Garden Wall season

[foundnthestars]

so i've always related more to dipper, for many reasons that aren't worth mentioning now, but recently i had a thought that made me take pause...

i've always related to mabel's gut instinct to make a joke or goad others, especially my family, with silly jokes or bits or whatnot. at least for myself, this gut instinct to make others laugh isn't always just for the sake of making a joke. i mean, yeah, i enjoy a good bit myself, but i know the real reason is something much deeper.

in the book of bill, we learn that mabel and dipper's parents are in the middle of a divorce, or at least gearing up for one, at any rate. while it seems like mainly dipper is affected by this in tbob, at least in his nightmares, i 100% believe that mabel knows about it, and is probably just as affected. only, she has a different reaction.

mabel's a do-er, whereas dipper is more the stew in it and let it consume him type of person. i believe she's an extremely emotionally intelligent person.

the girl literally carried around a list where she kept tabs on the emotional states of all of her friends and felt an extreme desire to “fix” their sadness and in turn, hers. she notices when the people around her are upset, and it makes her uncomfortable. she sees it as a problem to be solved rather than something she should let others deal with on their own terms.

and, yeah, i know what you're thinking. mabel's a child. she's silly and funny and makes jokes because that's what kids do. but it's also a defense mechanism children develop, and it’s rooted in childhood trauma (like witnessing longstanding domestic disputes, parents who can't emotionally regulate, etc.) this desire to constantly keep tabs on how others are feeling keeps us safe — if we've grown up in environments where people may lash out if they're experiencing turbulent emotions or longstanding fights.

my point is: mabel is portrayed as being silly and “unserious” but really she uses humor and optimism as a shield, taking on immense emotional labor for her friends and family and trying oh so desperately to bear the weight of others’ hardships. i think its a wonderful argument against the “mabel is selfish” crowd. she's avoidant, sometimes, under extreme duress, and other times she's proactive in tracking the emotional states of the people in her life.

[foundnthestars]

writing in ford's pov is always a battle. it's pretty clear to me that his internal monologue when juxtaposed with his actions would never realistically align. he's a textbook unreliable narrator, and that sometimes makes him read as harsh and unforgiving. and with the slow-moving pace of my wip, i'm in such a hurry to get to his actual, like, redeeming qualities after the storm of self-reverence, paranoia, and coldness that i've been writing into his thoughts in this last chapter.

because despite his assertions that he doesn't need family or social connections or a sense of belonging, he desperately craves it, and can be as much a "family man" as his twin. ford's problem is this deep-rooted sense that he doesn't deserve any of that unless he has something to show for it. he masks that unconscious desire with what he thinks is a noble pursuit of science and knowledge, but really he just wants to have something to show for himself. a first-place science project. an admission to his dream school. a million dollars to appease his shit father. a scientific breakthrough to explain gravity falls' weirdness.

bill fills those gaps for a while. until, ford's betrayed, and he goes back to that desire. this time, to be the only man capable of defeating him. or so he thinks.

[foundnthestars]

Chapters: 6/? Fandom: Gravity Falls Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence Relationships: Dipper Pines & Stan Pines, Ford Pines & Mabel Pines, Wendy Corduroy & Mabel Pines, Jesus "Soos" Alzamirano Ramirez & Mabel Pines Characters: Dipper Pines, Mabel Pines, Stan Pines, Ford Pines, Jesus "Soos" Alzamirano Ramirez, Wendy Corduroy, Bill Cipher, Pacifica Northwest Additional Tags: Hurt/Comfort, Dipper Pines and Grunkle Stan Bonding, Ford Pines and Mabel Pines Bonding, Heavy Angst, Family Fluff, Family Bonding, Fluff and Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Protective Stan Pines, Badass Dipper Pines, Ford Pines Has Issues, Ford Pines is Trying, Mabel Pines Needs A Hug, Dipper Pines Needs A Hug, Everyone Needs A Hug, Teenage Dipper Pines and Mabel Pines, Alternate Universe - Drifting Stars (Gravity Falls), except it's reversed, stan and dipper go through the portal, It Gets Worse Before It Gets Better, Guilt, It's Not Paranoia If They're Really Out To Get You, Panic Attacks, Ford Pines is a Jerk, at first!, Ford Pines is Bad at Feelings, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, of the bill cipher variety Summary:

In the 30 years Stan Pines spent trying to pull his twin brother back from interdimensional limbo, he never expected to end up on the other side of it. Especially not with his overly anxious, paranoid great-nephew in tow — barely able to stand looking in his direction most days.

Or, Stan and Dipper get sucked through the portal after the events of NWHS and Mabel and Ford are left scrambling to return what was lost.

[foundnthestars]

the thing about being 22 and unemployed is that i'm being literally haunted by my pre-teen/teen hyperfixations. it feels like i'm living in 2012-2014 every day.

[foundnthestars]

had this blog sitting idle for years and finally decided to raise it from the dead since i can't stop yapping in the author's notes of my current wip cause i really need to talk about it and all my other works so, yeah, can't promise this blog will be any good, but it's mine, and that's just how it goes