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junipersdragon · 10 months ago

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As I promised! For you, @jellyskink

Emotional Support Coat

A Grunkle Ford fic about his fuckass trench coat

It was rare to see one Stanford Filbrick Pines without his infamous trench coat on his person, but it does happen occasionally. Such an occasion had arisen on a lazy Sunday afternoon in the late spring while his niece and nephew were visiting for their school break. After a much-needed family hike through the forest of the sleepy town (Mable’s idea), Stanford had tossed off his coat in his bedroom before retreating upstairs for a shower.

A scientist’s mind was always working, and Ford was no exception to this rule. Equations and theories flashed behind his eyelids as he scrubbed the sweat and dirt from his hair with the sandalwood scented shampoo Mable had insisted he use.

“Grunkle Ford, you have to be mindful of your hair care!” She had explained. “Eight-in-one shampoo is not acceptable! This stuff is practically engine cleaner with the amount of sulfates in it!”

Sighing, he let the warm water run over his face as he rinsed his hair and body before turning off the water and stepping out of the shower. He loved his great niece, but sometimes he didn’t understand her insistence on things such as skin and hair care or how certain types of clothing should be washed. She was usually right in the long run, but he still didn’t understand it.

Once he was dry and dressed into his clean clothing, he made his way back downstairs to decompress and journal a bit before lunch. He enjoyed it, actually, despite no longer having his scientific journals with him. Keeping a journal just for himself was healing for him. It allowed him to categorize his thoughts and feelings with no obligation to show anyone else. His adventures with Stanley, his fond memories, his nightmares and fears; they were all recorded in his personal journal he kept.

Once he made it back to his room, towel lazily rubbing at his damp hair, he stopped in the doorway and looked around. Something seemed… different. Like something was… missing.

Panic slowly started to sink in as he tossed the towel aside and started rummaging around the room, looking for any signs of what it was that was making him feel so distressed. His journal was untouched, there were no fairies or squirrels hiding out in the small spaces, but- there! The small pile of dirty clothing he kept in the corner of the room was gone!

And his trench coat along with it.

“No…” he murmured quietly. “No no no no nonononono!!!!”

Racing out of his room, he called out into the house. “STANLEY!!!!”

“IM IN THE KITCHEN!” The man’s brother called back.

The man rushed to the kitchen, the tight feeling in his chest making it hard for him to focus. “Stanley,” Ford began as he walked into the kitchen, trying to calm his frazzled nerves. “Have you seen my coat?”

“Your coat?” Stan asked, pausing his sandwich making to look over his shoulder at him. “Yeah, Mable took it to the laundry room with all the rest of the dirty clothes. Why?”

The man felt sick to his stomach. Without another word, he turned and made a B-line for the laundry room as quickly as he could. His brother’s questions of if he was ‘okay’ were muffled and far away as he hoped and prayed to whatever gods were out there that he wasn’t too late.

Much to his dismay, he was.

“No!” He cried out, rushing over to the washing machine and pressing his face against the window that separated him from the inside. His beloved trench coat tumbled around in the soapy prison and he was powerless to stop it. The cycle was already halfway through, taking it out now was pointless.

The tightness in his chest grew to ahead as tears spilled down his cheeks. His chest rose and fell with breath as his fingers buried into his hair, grabbing and pulling the damp locks in a feeble attempt to get his brain to do something, anything!

“Grunkle Ford?” A sweet voice asked from the doorway of the laundry room.

His breathing became more uneven as his desperation grew. He needed his coat. He needed his coat now!

“Grunkle Ford!” Mable gasped, rushing over to him and holding his face in her hands. “Grunkle Ford, c’mon, look at me!”

Through his stress-induced brain fog, he flicked his eyes upward to look at the girl. She was worried, it was written all over her face. It made him feel even worse.

“Grunkle Ford, you gotta breathe, okay? Copy me.” She told him, taking in a deep breath. “Breathe in…. Hold it…. Then release.” She instructed, releasing the breath slowly.

Shakily, he mirrored his great niece. Breath in, hold, release. Breath in, hold, release. Breath in…. Hold…. Release.

“There we go…!” She smiled, gently taking his hands from his hair and putting them into his lap.

“Thank you, Mable.” He sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to worry you.”

“That’s okay!” She told him, but her smile faltered a bit. “What happened? Is everything okay?”

Ford sighed again and looked at the washing machine, the rinse cycle finished and waiting for the clothes to be transferred to the dryer. He felt pathetic. “My coat…”

“Your coat?” She asked, sitting down cross-legged in front of him.

“I didn’t realize that you were going to take it to wash. So when I came back to my room and saw that it was missing, I panicked.”

Mable gasped, eyes wide as her hands flew to her mouth. “Oh my gosh, Grunkle Ford! Im so sorry!” She said.

“Oh, no, Mabel it’s quite alright!” He tried to reassure her. “I’m not upset with you, you were just trying to do something nice for me! That coat means a great deal to me, you see, so I don’t like to be without it for very long.”

“So it’s like…. Your emotional support coat?” She asked.

Ford knit his eyebrows together, thinking for a moment before nodding. “Yes… yes, I suppose you could say that it is.”

“Oh!” Mable said, nodding her head. “Okay, I get it! It’s kinda like how Dipper always wears his hat!”

“Yes, just like that.” He smiled, gently ruffling her hair. “It helps ground me, in a way.”

“I get it!” She smiled. There was a beat is silence between them before she looked at the washing machine. “What are we going to do, though? Your coat is still super wet from the washer…”

“Hmm…” Ford hummed in thought before shrugging and standing up. “Toss it into the dryer, I suppose.”

“What?” Mable asked, surprised. “Are you sure?”

Taking a breath in through his nose, Stanford sighed and nodded. “Yes, I’m sure.” He said before smiling at her. “I trust your judgement and I know that you’ll take care of the things that mean a lot to me.”

Mable smiled, standing up and hugging her great uncle. “Thanks Grunkle Ford. For trusting me with your coat, and for not being mad at me when I mess up sometimes.”

The man smiled and hugged her back. “Mistakes happen, my dear. It’s how we handle the mistakes that make the situation better or worse. And I would say out of the two of us, you handled the situation far better than I did.”

Giggling, she looked up and him. “It’s okay Grunkle Ford! Any time you need someone to help you, I’ll be there.”

A weight lifted from the man’s chest and he nodded, squeezing her a little tighter.

“Thank you, Mable.”

Is there a Gravity Falls fic of Ford having a panic attack because someone tried to wash his nasty ass coat

#grunkle ford #stanford pines #gravity falls fanfiction #mable pines #they can never make me hate you Mabel #ford’s fuckass trench coat #ford and mabel bonding

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junipersdragon · 11 months ago

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Center of Gravity

A Gravity Falls Fanfic

(Part 1)

If you’ve ever taken a roadtrip through the Pacific Northwest, you’ve probably seen a bumper sticker for a place called Gravity Falls. It’s not on any maps, and most people have never even heard of it. I certainly hadn’t before my dad decided to uproot our entire lives and move there one summer when I was thirteen. At the time, I resented him for it. I was being forced to leave everything I had ever known behind for a dinky little tourist town in the middle of nowhere Oregon. I had to leave behind my childhood home, my best friend, and most importantly, any chance of solving the biggest mystery of my life.

Needless to say, I was pretty moody.

“Oh, c’mon now Goose.” My dad said, nudging my arm gently when he noticed the sour expression on my face. “This will be a new adventure for the both of us!”

I huffed softly, slouching in the seat of the packed SUV while he drove. “We’re quite literally moving to a town that has laws about marrying woodpeckers, Dad. Woodpeckers. Y’know, the bird?”

He chuckled nervously, clearing his throat and waving his hand dismissively. “So it’s got some… character… but I’m an expert when it comes to that!”

I gave him a flat look. “Please, no author puns. I’m not in the mood.”

“Well then, I’ll just have to find another way to make you laugh!” He grinned cheekily and reached over to the passenger seat, poking me in the ribs and making me squeak.

“Agh!!!! No!!!” I screeched as he poked me over and over again, causing me to laugh until my eyes watered.

Dad started laughing too, and once he was satisfied, he finally took his hand away and looked fully back at the road.

“Trust me, Harmony.” He said, ruffling my hair. “This will be good for us.”

My laughter died down as I fixed my hair, but a pit in my stomach was slowly growing the closer and closer we got to our destination.

~~~

“Ah, just smell that fresh air!” My dad exclaimed as he got out of the car, stretching his arm up over his head. “Man, I haven’t been back in Oregon since I was in my twenties!”

“Theres definitely a lot of trees here…” I stated bluntly, looking around the car to our new house. I scrunched my nose up a bit as I looked at the peeling yellow paint and sagging porch. “And termites…”

“Mr. Evans!” A man in a suit called before coming over to my dad and shaking his hand. “Glad you were able to make it safely!”

My dad took the man’s hand and shook it, his kind smile pulling at his lips. “Please, call me Simon.” He said before looking past the man and raising an eyebrow at the house. “Is this it?”

“This is indeed! 722 Gopher Rd.” The realtor confirmed. “What do you think?”

He paused for a moment, looking the house over with that calculating look of his, before nodding and beaming at the man. “It’s perfect!”

“What?” I asked, shocked. “Dad, that house is one earthquake or windstorm away from toppling over!”

“I can assure you, Miss, the house is perfectly safe!” The realtor tried to assure me. Immediately after he said that, the mailbox that was hanging next to the front door fell off the wall and clattered onto the porch.

“I’ve always wanted a fixer-upper house!” Dad explained, clasping his hands together and looking excitedly at the house. “It has everything we need already, we just need to give it a little TLC!”

“More like TNT…” I grumbled, folding my arms over my chest.

My dad looked back at him, that bright smile still on his face. “What was that, Goose?”

I looked at him for a moment, the fact slowly sinking in. My dad was in love with this house, and he was so excited to make it a home. I couldn’t crush him like that…

Sighing, I gave him a small smile. “Which room is mine?”

~~~

“Ugh, finally!” I groaned, putting down the last box and straightening my back. “That took forever!”

My dad laughed, tossing a rolled up ball of packing tape at me like a snowball. “Good work today, kiddo!”

“Eh, it was nothing.” I shrugged before grinning at him. “I’m just surprised that we were able to fit all your plants into one room. I thought we would have to leave some behind.”

He gasped, putting a hand to his chest in mock horror. “Never!”

I laughed, picking up the packing tape ball and tossing at him. Before it could hit him in the shoulder though, he caught it.

“I’m going to order us a pizza for dinner. Why don’t you go explore a bit, huh?” He asked, jerking his head toward the window and the tree line beyond.

I looked out the window and hummed, frowning slightly. “You’re gonna let your thirteen year old daughter wander around unsupervised?”

“Goose, you’re a teenager now. I want you to explore and grow. Find things that interest you, get into a new hobby!” He paused for a second before saying, “Make some friends…?”

I huffed slightly at what he was implying. “I have Jenna.”

Dad rubbed the back of his neck, eyebrows knit together like he was worried. “Well, yes, that’s true, but your cousin is overseas for College now and… I just thought it would be nice if you tried making some friends that are closer to your age…?”

Most kids my age think the things I’m into are weird.

I bit back the snide comment and shoved my hands deep into my pockets, shrugging. “I guess…” I murmured.

Satisfied with the answer for now, my dad smiled and ruffled my hair as he walked past. “Don’t wander too far, okay? Pizza should be here in an hour or so.”

“Okay Dad, I won’t.” I promised, smiling back at him before he disappeared into the kitchen to order the food.

Once he was gone though, I let the smile drop and I sighed, scuffing my shoe against the floor before turning and walking out the door.

~~~

I let my mind wander as I walked through the forest, kicking a rock down the path every few feet. While the forest was pretty, I couldn’t help but miss Lake Tahoe. Dad and I would go camping with Jenna every summer in a forest near the lake just like this one, but now…

I frowned, glaring down at the rock and kicking it as hard as I could. I listened as it skittered off the path, into the brush and then, to my surprise, clatter against something stone at the bottom of the small hill.

“What the…?” I murmured, knitting my eyebrows together and craning my neck to peak into the underbrush. At the bottom of the hill, I could make out something made out of stone. “A statue?”

Carefully, I picked my way down the hill and through the underbrush into a small clearing in the middle of the woods. Picking leaves out of my hair, I approached the odd statue and examined it.

“Weird…” I said in a hushed voice. The statue was what looked like the all-seeing eye but it was… personified? That’s the best way I could describe it, really. It was a pyramid with one eye, a top hat, and a bow tie with one arm outstretched in greeting. The stone was cracked and crumbling in different places, and it had moss and mushrooms growing on it.

Squatting down in front of the statue, I looked at it closer before humming. “I bet you’re lonely out here all by yourself, huh?”

Of corse I didn’t expect the statue to answer. It’s a statue, why would it? But the silence that followed my question didn’t feel empty, as though the statue was silently telling me, “go on.”

I sighed, sitting down and looking at it. “Well, I feel you there. My dad moved us all the way out here because he thinks it’ll be good for us, whatever that’s supposed to mean.”

Hugging my knees to my chest, I continued. “But, with Jenna traveling Europe for her architecture major, and us in this new place, it makes me wonder if there’s another reason he moved us out here. Like…” I hesitated, but I needed to put it out there. “Like… he thinks that Mom really isn’t coming back and he’s… moving on…”

Eight years ago my mom, Johanna Evans, suddenly just… disappeared. She had her normal day bag packed as dropped me off at school with a promise of something really good for dinner that night. That was the last time I saw her.

She didn’t come to pick me up from school that day, so my Dad had to come pick me up. I remember sitting there on the curb for hours, waiting for my mom and watching how all my other classmates got picked up. When we got home, the police were there and had to question me about what happened that morning.

Mom’s car was found parked on the side of the road up in the mountains the next afternoon. There was no trace of her, or where she could have gone. Her purse and day bag were left behind, there were no footprints leading to or from the car, and there was no DNA evidence found except for my Dad’s and my own.

The fact that my mother’s dna wasn’t in the the car period was baffling, but it was nowhere near the horrifying discovery of the groceries in the back trunk. Despite the receipt having the previous day’s date to go along with the food, everything was rotted and decaying as if it had been there an entire year. The entire situation was too bizzarre and no one could explain what happened to her, so the case went cold.

But I didn’t give up on her. So, I started playing detective… and part of me just, never stopped.

Taking in a deep breath, I told my story to this strange statue. I’m not entirely sure why, but I wanted to tell someone how I really felt about all of this. And once I had finished, I felt almost… lighter. Like a weight I had been carrying with me had finally been lifted off my shoulders.

Once I finished my story, I stood up and dusted myself off. “Thanks for listening to me, statue guy.” I said to the inanimate object. I looked at the stone depiction and smiled softly. “I think I really needed it…”

~~~

For the next week, any time my dad told me to go “exploring��, I went back to that clearing with the statue. I’m not sure why I kept going back, but I just… did. It was nice, I guess, to have someone actually listen to what I had to say. I talked to it about anything and everything.

I told it about Lake Tahoe, about my favorite books; my hobbies and my interest in code cracking and the paranormal. But mostly, I talked about my Mom. I talked about the things I remembered about her, the stories my dad told me about her, and the theories I had about her disappearance.

“Maybe she was abducted by aliens?” I wondered aloud as I walked around the clearing, poking and prodding at the different foliage with a stick for anything that might catch my eye. Nothing did. “It might explain the groceries and why there weren’t any footprints?”

Of corse, the statue didn’t answer, but that’s okay. Sometimes it was better to have someone listen than to have their input.

After a week of being in Gravity Falls, we finally got the majority of the new house put together and it was starting to look a lot less dilapidated. Dad’s office was now in a converted sun room so he could be surrounded by his plants while he worked. That’s where I found him when I was on my way out of the house to go to the clearing again.

“You off to go hang out with your new friend?” He asked over his shoulder, finishing the sentence he was typing on his computer before turning to look at me.

“Who?” I asked absently before dropping my shoe and looking at him. “Oh! Right! My friend!” I said, smiling wide. I just hoped it didn’t look forced or anything.

“You should bring them over sometime! I’d like to meet them!” Dad smiled, leaning back in his office chair.

“Uh… y-yeah, maybe…? I’m not sure if they’d be into that…” I shrugged before bending down to tuck the laces of my shoes into the sides. Not to mention this new friend was a statue and not a person.

“Never hurts to ask, Goose.” He assured me before turning back around in his chair to face the computer again. “Just make sure you’re home for dinner, okay?”

“Will do.” I said, standing up once my shoe was secured. “See you later dad!” I called as I left the house.

Grabbing my walking stick, I made my way down the familiar path to the clearing. Honestly, I was pretty glad to. There was some sort of “Welcome Back” party or something going on at the house down the road, and I would do anything to avoid it.

Well… house was maybe a bit of an understatement.

Dad and I had to pass by the place on our way to the store the other day. 618 Gopher Road wasn’t a house, but more of a roadside attraction. The self proclaimed “Mystery Shack” was originally the home of a cryptozoologist turned tourist trap that, despite selling plastic junk and paying an arm and a leg for fake attractions, was well beloved by townsfolk and travelers alike.

“Cheep tourist tricks…” I grumbled to myself, taking my walking stick and stabbing it down into the ground. To my surprise, the tip of the stick hit something hard and snapped in half.

“Aw man, my stick…!” I frowned, grabbing the two halves of the stick and tossing them into the underbrush. As I was about to walk away, however, I noticed something that I hadn’t before. A small, dirty black box.

Knitting my eyebrows together, I bent down and grabbed the box, turning it over in my hands. It looked old, like it had been there for a while.

“What is this, some sort of ring box…?” I murmured, finding the front of the box and opening it.

Inside the box was a blue, lozenge-cut crystal. It was about the length of the tip of my finger to my second knuckle and was semi-clear. It was weird, the thing almost seemed to be… glowing.

“Weird…” I murmured, but shrugged and closed the box, slipping it into my pocket. “Maybe I’ll make it into a necklace.” I said to myself as I continued down my path.

The closer I got to the clearing, the further the weird crystal slipped from my mind. I was looking forward to talking to statue guy and sitting against a tree with a good book today. I was getting to a really good part and I was excited to see how it ended.

When I was nearly to my spot, I couldn’t help but notice a low sound coming from the clearing. A sound that sounded a lot like… talking. I froze. No! Not my little sanctuary! Quickly, I hid behind a tree before I could be noticed and peered down into the clearing.

Crouching down in front of the triangle statue was, surprisingly, a boy. He looked like he was about my age, with brown hair that peaked out from underneath a trapper cap. I could tell that he was talking to the statue by the way his lips were moving, but I couldn’t quite make out what he was saying. I closed my eyes and strained my ears to listen.

It really wasn’t much use. I couldn’t make out what he was saying, only bits and pieces. But, there was one thing that I was able to make out. A name.

Bill.

After a short amount of time, the boy stood up, put his hands in his pockets, and walked away from the statue. I waited until he had left before carefully picking my way through the brush and down into the clearing again.

I looked around, curious to see if there was any trace left behind by the boy. Satisfied that there wasn’t, I finally looked at the statue and tilted my head.

“Bill, huh? Is that your name?” I asked, looking at the statue closely. I thought about it for a moment and hummed.

“Well, it’s better than just calling you statue guy, so…” I shrugged, smiling a bit and reached my hand out to the statue’s outstretched one. “Nice to meet you Bill, I’m Harmony.”

Once my hand was grasped around the statue’s, I knew I had made a big mistake. The world around me drained of all color and froze, as though time itself no longer existed. I gasped, snatching my hand back and looking around in horror.

“What’s going on?!” I asked, eyes wide with fear. And this time, I was answered.

“FINALLY!!!!” A voice boomed seemingly from nowhere. Cracks began to form along the statue’s surface, bright light emanating from underneath as the cracks grew in size.

I shielded my eyes from the bright light until a loud boom echoed through the forest, followed by laughter that sent chills down my spine.

“I’m free!!!! I’m finally free!!!” The voice cried out joyously. Blinking hard to clear my vision, I lowered my arm to finally face the owner of the voice.

In front of me was the statue, except not. Instead of solid stone, the thing floating in front of me was very much alive, despite how ridiculous it seemed. A yellow triangle with one eye wearing a top hat and bow tie, a glowing blue crack along the right side of its… I think it was its face.

“I… I’m dreaming…!” I murmured to myself in disbelief, unable to wrap my mind around what I was seeing. “That’s got to be it…! I-I must have fallen asleep in the clearing or something!”

The creature laughed, finally seeming to notice me. He disappeared suddenly before re-appearing right in front of my face, causing me to jump. “Hate to break it to ya’ kid, but this isn’t a dream! This is very real!”

“N-no! There’s no way!” I shook my head, scooting backwards. “What even are you?!”

“The name’s Bill Cipher, pleasure to meet ya!” He said, and though he didn’t have a mouth, I could tell in his voice that he was grinning.

“Bill…?” I asked. That was the name that boy had called the statue earlier!

“Thats right!” He replied, floating closer to me. “And you, kid, are going to have the pleasure of helping me get revenge on those who wronged me! All you gotta do is make one teeny tiny little deal with me.” He outstretched his hand towards me. “What do you sa-?” Before he could finish, he recoiled his hand and let out an unearthly, ear-piercing screech.

I winced, covering my ears and squeezing my eyes shut. The box in my pocket suddenly felt warm, but it was comforting and put my mind at ease.

“This isn’t over, Semiquaver!” Bill growled, but I kept my eyes tightly closed. “You’ll separate from that thing eventually, and when you do, I’ll be waiting! I see and know everything! You’ll come back when you can’t find what you’re looking for! They always do!”

As he talked, his voice sounded further and further way, until finally, it was gone. With a sudden whoosh of air, the silence was filled with the normal sounds of the forest.

Slowly, I cracked my eyes open to take in my surroundings. I was in the clearing. There was color, and sound, and there was movement. But, when I looked towards where the statue usually sat, my stomach flipped and I nearly lost my breakfast. Why?

Because the statue was gone.

#gravity falls #bill cipher #gravity falls fanfiction #gravity falls oc #center of gravity story

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