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sleepy-spacetronaut · 1 month ago

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Gravity Falls fanfic plot idea

After a long moment of debating I decided to write down something I could incorporate my Human!Bill design into. (Why do all my writing ideas come to me at the worst possible times?!)

Some plot related specificities

Bill has a human form he maintains up until he managed to restore his magic back to 50% of its initial quantity.

Stanley would have some amnesiac episodes and holes in his memory.

Subsequently, Bill would offer to help restore some of them since he saw most of his memories back when he tried to possess him in Season 1.

Mabel and Dipper would turn 16 during the summer (story happens 2 years post weirdmaggedon)

One-sided BillFord (romantically) most likely, it could become queerplatonic with mutual bickering.

High chances of the story being anachronistic for the sole purpose of using some Gen Z slang and songs from the 2010s.

We will try to stick as close to the canon as possible, until we jump into complete and utter weirdness powered by imagination.

The plot itself

Main idea is that the initial “forced therapy for millions of years” solution failed miserably. Knowing that Bill is chaos incarnate, he would be driving the theraprism staff mad for the sake of getting a rise out of people. He’d make arts and crafts with his meds, bullsh*t his way through therapy sessions ,and draw cringe stuff about him and Ford dominating the multiverse together, whenever he’s not drawing red, blue and yellow triangles all over his room/cell.

The story would most likely begin with Bill getting thrown back to earth for being an annoying little equilateral freak.

The logic behind this is that if therapy couldn’t cure him, and sending him to Hell would be the same as sentencing an unworthy man to ostracism in ancient Athens, then shipping him off to earth (buttnaked and with no powers) and letting him fend for his life as a lowly human is their best option at getting him to ‘learn his lesson’.

I love the Handyman Bill AU (credit to @/LosanPostle & @/waty_mot on Twitter*), so Bill will be taken in by Soos and Melody to work in the mystery Shack, however at first Bill will sneak in pretending to be an overly curious tourist and try to find a way to Ford’s laboratory. Only after getting discovered , the Axolotl would materialize in their realm to explain the reason why the dream demon was back, and ask Soos and Melody if they were okay to give Bill a place to stay for the time of his ‘redemption arc’.

With some compromises they accept, Bill must to wear an ankle monitor at all times and the Axolotl grants its protection to all the people who live in the town in case Bill tries anything silly! (e.g. Weirdmaggedon 2 since one near end-of-the-world experience clearly wasn’t enough for him)

At first he’d be casually helping out around when asked before it became his unofficial job, but the trouble settle in when the Stan twins return from their trip. They arrive at the shack two weeks before Mabel and Dipper returned for their summer vacation to visit their grunkles.

Once the younger Pines are in town, Bill will be attempting to gain their trust—this part is both difficult and incredibly delicate.

After the way he had actively tried to murder , had tortured (physically and psychologically), impersonated and lied to the Pines (and everyone else in Gravity Falls for that matter), people would first try to avoid even being in the same room as him. Eventually, he got to earn their trust by keeping to his end of he bargain each time he made promises and by actually doing favours for them.

Besides cleaning the shack and running many errands at a time, Bill would also get dragged into some perilous adventures with and without his consent, and will eventually develop a fondness for the people he’ve sworn to hate.

Mabel would probably become his favourite, he’d see her as a younger sister or perhaps as a daughter, although he wouldn’t qualify as a good caretaker. With Dipper, Bill would often get into disagreements, but their love for science, strategy games and music brought them together; they’d often sing some BABBA songs and be dorky and unserious.

Regarding his love life, it was a major flop: despite his and Mabel’s efforts, he couldn’t get back with Sixer. The cut in their withered relationship was too deep to heal with time, and romantic fantasies were quickly dumped in the trash along with crumpled love notes. Although, despite not being able to see him as a romantic partner, Ford accepted the possibility of a renewal of their friendship. Bill even got to share a moment with Ford on the roof one night and rest his head on Ford’s shoulder as they gazed at the stars. Everything seems to be going great.

For once in his existence, Bill had almost everything he’d ever wanted, in a way. A place he could call home, he had friends—and family, to an extent… However, he wasn’t satsfied with what he had, and would still snoop around Ford’s stuff to see if he can make his powers return (which they do indeed, slowly by surely), yet more passively.

At one point, at the end of July, he got caught by Stanford looking through some old books and writing down magic circles. A heated argument broke out, in which both of them got injured, and it cumulated too Ford threatening to erase Bill a second time via the memory gun he kept from McGucket. In the end, Ford states that Bill will never be a part of the Pines family, that his lying was proof of the impossibility of his redemption, and that the next time he wouldn’t hesitate to get rid of him.

Upset beyond measure, Bill packs his stuff and choses to leave the town without a word of goodbye. At the edge of the town, he found his way blocked by the natural weirdness containment barrier, since his magic would almost be the same as half of what he had prior to his death and resurrection in the Theraprism. Even more enraged, Bill tried to break the barrier, transforming into something close to his feral form when he was a triangle—except in human form he’d look something like a Titan. Mabel and Dipper also had ran off in search for Bill because they got worried, and when they tried to stop him, they got captured. Bill was almost about to crush them in his hands if it weren’t for Melody, Soos, Stan and Ford’s intervention.

He then shrunk back to regular human proportions and released the twins, who got back to their grunkles. Feeling as if he had messed it up yet again, and not wanting to face the consequences to his actions (both due to him being still bitter with the way Ford treated him and being scared because he overstepped the agreement Soos had with the Axolotl and did not want to be returned to the Theraprism) Bill chose to run. He took off into the woods before anyone could stop him. Would he survive the woods and it’s inhabitants?

Would he get back to the shack?

Would he travel to another dimension and attempt to ‘fix’ everything, or will his existence be doomed to a catastrophic ending?

Only time will tell.

Now a little poll time, should I bring this to life or shall it forever be a theoretical thing, too dangerous (or boring?) to be applied in practice?

*note regarding the AU: there’s an account here where the creators of the Handyman Bill AU post their comics, they can be found under the tag or simply by searching the name of the AU in the search bar.

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catsandbats13 · 2 months ago

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I wrote a Stan x reader fanfic!

I have never written a fanfic before, let alone written smut (spoiler alert) so I hope my fellow Grunkle lovers like it!

Also everyone say thank you to @rubydracogirl for proofreading this for me! You’re the best!

Here’s chapter 1, I’ll be posting the rest shortly

(You can also read it on ao3 if you prefer)

Author's note: you’ll notice the reader only refers to him as Stan, as at this point in the series no one else knew he was Stanley and not Stanford. Also I didn’t want the reader to refer to him as Stanford cause in my mind I’m just picturing Ford instead lol.

Additionally I apologize but I completely left Waddles out, I know he was there in the episode, I just didn’t include him cause I felt it was a bit distracting. Sorry for all you big Waddles fans out there! This is also my first time writing Stan x reader or any fanfic of any kind, so I apologize if it’s a bit OOC.

Scaryoke Scars

CHAPTER 1

You were still trying to wrap your head around everything that had happened. The night had started normally enough with the Shack’s grand re-opening party, attended by the grateful townspeople after Stan had exposed Lil Gideon for the fraud that he was.

You had expected to see some awkward teenagers hanging on the periphery, some smashing of what Mabel referred to as “Stañiata’s”, and maybe even dance with Stan, who you’d been pining after for months since you were hired as additional personnel for the Shack at the beginning of summer.

What you hadn’t expected was for the ground to start shaking, scattering the partygoers as they ran for safety, and for Dipper, Mabel and Soos to round the corner being chased by a horde of zombies.

Sure, you weren’t oblivious to the strangeness of Gravity Falls, what with the kids and their spooky journal constantly getting involved with the paranormal, but you had hoped that after the craziness of Gideon’s defeat there’d be a bit of a break from action and adventure.

You’d had the whole thing worked out; you’d wait until a classic 80s song came on, and make your way over to Stan in his stupidly sexy form fitting suit. From there you would sidle up to him and ask how he’s enjoying his party, he’d make some dumb comment about how it’s high time the people of this town realized the Mystery Shack was the ultimate party destination or joke about how he should’ve charged more for tickets. Then you’d both laugh and he’d share one of those smiles meant for you and only you. You’d gather your courage and reach out your hand and ask “Would you care for a dance?” And in your fantasy he’d chuckle and do that adorable gesture where he blushes and shyly rubs the back of his neck before looking in your eyes and saying “I can’t say no to you, doll.” You’d imagined the two of you dancing the night away and sharing flirty glances and maybe even more, but those dreams were quickly dashed when you saw the mob of the undead coming after the kids.

“Dipper! What’s the one thing I asked you not to do?” Mabel scolded her brother.

“Raise the dead,” Dipper responded remorsefully.

“And what did you do?”

“Raise the dead.”

You couldn’t help but find it slightly funny how cavalier Mabel was about her twin summoning the undead, clearly this wasn’t their first rodeo with the paranormal.

More pressingly though, the zombies were rapidly closing in, leaving the four of you backed up against the side of the shack.

Soos heroically stepped in front of you all, attempting to shield you from the imminent danger.

“Get back dudes, this is about to get intense!”

As the zombies tore through the picnic table like it was nothing, you all screamed in unison, until the terror of the moment was temporarily broken by Soos pulling out his phone to snap a quick picture, commenting, “You gotta admit, this is pretty cool!”

“Not really the time, Soos!” You responded, unable to keep panic from creeping into your voice.

“Don’t panic! Maybe they’re just a really ugly flash mob!” Mabel reasoned in a trembling voice.

Leave it to her to be optimistic in the face of certain death.

“Dudes, stay calm,” Soos interjected confidently.

“With all the zombie movies I’ve seen, I know literally everything there is to know about how to avoid zombies.”

Soos was quickly proven wrong, and you watched in horror as one of the undead lurched forward and bit Soos hard on the shoulder, causing the handyman’s eyes to cloud over to a pale white, his skin becoming pallid and gray with tinges of sickly green as he was turned into a member of the terrifying horde in front of you.

“Second thought, gonna flip the script. Can I…eat your brains? Yay or nay? I’m seeing some yay faces here…”

The three of you jumped back and screamed in terror at the sight of your friend being transformed. Not wasting any time, you grabbed an arm from both twins and took off running, pulling them along around the side of the house, trying desperately to get away from what seemed like an endless, ever approaching crowd of zombies.

As you rounded the corner, Dipper spotted the golf cart to the side and shouted, “Quick! The golf cart!” Only for it to immediately be torn apart by the flesh eating monsters.

“Oh come on!” he said in an exasperated voice.

Soos and the rest of the zombies were right behind you, and you heard the handyman say, “Hoo, that’s a bummer! Good news for me though!”

“Soos!” Dipper and you shouted indignantly at the same time.

“Sorry dude, I just really want those brains!” The zombie Soos chuckled.

“Stay back!” Dipper shouted, taking the shovel he’d been carrying and using it like a baseball bat to launch one of the party’s light up disco balls at the creatures, and hopefully force them back a bit. But to your shock and horror, the zombie simply swallowed the thing whole. The disco ball lit up its ribcage dramatically from within in shades of blue, yellow and red, illuminating your terrified faces.

“Give it up, dudes, your fighting only makes us look more rad!” Soos reasoned as him and the zombies continued their now extra radical approach towards your group.

The three of you backed away from the steadily approaching horde, Mabel gripping onto her brother for dear life and you holding tightly to the sleeve of Dipper’s vest, keeping the kids as close to you as possible. You would be damned if you were gonna let these kids get hurt under your watch. You didn’t know what you could possibly do in defense of literal flesh eating monsters, but you knew you’d go down fighting if it meant giving the kids a chance to get away.

“What do we do? Where’s Grunkle Stan?” Mabel fretted.

“How’s he supposed to help? He doesn’t even believe in the supernatural!” Dipper cried.

Oh god, where is Stan? You thought anxiously.

Dipper is right, he thinks this is all made up, does he even stand a chance against an army of zombies?

You couldn’t bear to think of what they could’ve possibly done to him. Little did you know, you had severely underestimated Stan and his ability to kick ass when it counts.

The mob had quickly gotten too close for comfort and you used your grip on the twins to drag them further down the path towards the front door of the Shack, hoping to find safety behind its doors.

Before you could reach it though a zombie popped up in front of Mabel, and for a split second you thought she was a goner, but the girl didn’t hesitate and used the portable karaoke machine she’d been pulling along the whole time to knock the creature’s head clean off it’s shoulders, shouting, “TAKE THAT SUCKA!”, killing it instantly. Mabel seemed just as stunned as the rest of you that she’d been successful.

“This thing’s a surprisingly good weapon!” You heard her remark before the zombies got within arms reach and you all bolted for the door. The three of you raced inside and you slammed the door shut just as decomposing hands began to grasp at it.

“Quick! We need to board up all the windows!” Dipper instructed, Mabel and yourself swiftly following his lead and blocked the door with whatever you could find in the gift shop, prioritizing the heavier objects like the Mayan calendar and a metal rack of keychains to obstruct the entrance.

Despite your best efforts, the zombies managed to squeeze their hungry limbs through the gaps in the doorway, grasping and clawing at the air in desperation, but not getting beyond that for the time being.

“Okay, maybe that’ll hold them,” you said uncertainly, backing up to the relative safety of the rear of the gift shop.

All of a sudden, the side window was smashed open, revealing a grinning zombie Soos brandishing a drill.

“Hey dudes! By the way, I taught the zombies how to get into the fuse box,” the lights flickered off as he spoke, confirming his statement and leaving you in darkness with only some faint red light from outside.

“Among these dudes I’m like a genius!”

With the window broken, the undead began pouring through the frame and stalking towards you.

“Get those brains, dawg!” You heard Soos rooting for the zombies from outside the shack.

Panicked and trapped, you tried to run to the other door, only for several arms to punch through it and attempt to grab ahold of you. You and the kids had no choice but to retreat into the corner.

“Dipper, isn’t there something in the journal about defeating zombies?!” Mabel cried fearfully.

Dipper pulled out the worn journal and frantically flipped through the pages, searching for something that could save you from this deadly predicament.

“No! There’s nothing here about weaknesses!” He cried in a panic.

“This can’t be happening, I wanted answers so bad I put everyone in danger. Now we’re toast, it’s all my fault and no one can save us!”

A zombified arm popped out of the mob and snatched Dipper up, making him scream, “AH, NO! Mabel, I’m sorry!”

You reacted instantly and grabbed ahold of his midsection and used every bit of strength you had to pull him out of the monster's grasp. You succeeded and managed to wrench Dipper away and instinctively put yourself in between the kids and the rapidly approaching dead. You knew in your heart this was the end, but you hoped that maybe you could distract the zombies long enough for Dipper and Mabel to get away. You were more scared than you’d ever been in your life but you were more afraid of losing the twins, who you’d quickly grown to love over the course of the summer.

“Kids, you gotta run away, don’t wait for me!” You shouted what you thought would be your last words. You braced yourself to fight, your hands clenched into fists in front of you. But before you could take a swing, you were yanked to the side by rotting green arms, pulling you towards its gaping maw. At the very last second, before it had the chance to bite you, the zombie's head was knocked clean off by the violent swing of a baseball bat and a powerful stomp reduced the skull to dust. You fell to the floor, stunned and tried to process what you were seeing.

There, stood in front of you, broad chest heaving with effort, was none other Stan Pines. His suit was ripped and torn all over and covered in what you could only assume were zombie guts, clenched tightly in his hand was a bat that had clearly taken out more than a couple zombie heads on the way there.

He wasted no time and shouted, “YOU THREE, ATTIC, NOW!” in a voice that under normal circumstances would’ve been kinda hot, but you were still too overwhelmed by nearly having become zombie chow.

“Gr-Grunkle Stan?!” Dipper stuttered, clearly in disbelief at the sight of his uncle being such a badass.

“I said NOW!” Stan repeated harshly, jolting you into action as you jumped up and frantically ran with the twins through the living room and up the stairs towards safety, with Stan following, fighting back your attackers as you retreated.

You could hear Stan’s shouts and taunts as he held off the zombie attackers completely on his own.

“Alright you undead jerks, you ready to die twice?!”

You stopped at the top of the stairs once you saw the kids were well ahead of you to look back at Stan. He was a blur, swinging the bat and taking out the zombies like it was nothing, smashing head after head and avoiding every swipe and claw at him.

“The only wrinkly monster who harasses my family is me! Take that, and that!” Stan continued to beat the swarm back, not even hesitating when one zombie gained the upper hand and bit the bat in half, rearing back and punching through its head with his brass knuckles.

“Eat it, no-eyes! Anyone else want a piece?!” He hollered, pumped up on adrenaline and rage.

As much as you wanted to keep watching this impressive display of power by your long-time crush, you knew it was only a matter of time before the mass of the dead made their way upstairs. Reassured that he could handle himself, you turned tail and ran up to the attic, meeting the kids in their room and slamming the door shut behind you.

“Where’s Grunkle Stan?” Mabel asked you worriedly.

“Don’t worry, he should be right behind me,” you reassured the young girl, patting her arm in an attempt to comfort her.

The moment was broken by a loud pounding at the door, the three of you huddled together in fear, expecting the undead to break through any second, but instead the door swung open to reveal Stan, coughing slightly and hunched over, but safe and sound.

“Ugh, ow, everything hurts.” He complained as he made his way into the attic and barricaded the door with a chair.

“Grunkle Stan, that was amazing!” Dipper said in shock and awe at having witnessed his Great Uncle take on a legion of the dead and kick absolute ass.

“Are you alright?” He asked, before awkwardly chuckling and remarking, “Well, at least you can’t deny magic exists anymore.”

After a short pause, to everyone’s surprise Stan responded, “Kid, I’ve always known.”

“What?!” The three of you yelled in unison.

You hadn’t been expecting that, he’d done a great job of feigning ignorance up until this point, you genuinely thought he was oblivious to the weirdness that permeated the town.

“Wait, what are you talking about?” Dipper said in total confusion.

“I’m not an idiot, Dipper! Of course this town is weird! And the one thing I know about that weirdness is that it’s dangerous!”

As if to prove his point, a zombie hand broke through the wood of the blocked door, forcing you all further into the room and away from its deadly grip.

“I’ve been lying about it to try to keep you away from it, to try to protect you from it!”

You felt your heart squeeze at the confession, he was so protective of the kids. It made perfect sense to you as to why he’d chosen to lie, he really thought he was doing what was best for their safety. Not to mention the fact that Gravity Falls’s weirdness was why you were in this predicament in the first place.

The sound of shattering glass reached your ears as another zombie attempted to break into the room, this time through the window. With a powerful right hook, the monster was sent flying back from whence it came, landing in the middle of a crowd of zombies, who eerily stared back at you with their blank, dead eyes.

“It looks like I didn’t lie well enough.” Stan said bitterly.

“What do we do, what do we do?” Mabel cried anxiously.

Dipper pulled out his journal and began pacing the room.

“Well, normally the journal would help us, but there’s nothing in there about defeating zombies! It’s hopeless!”

Unbeknownst to him, the open book had been illuminated by one of the black lights from the party, revealing writing that was otherwise invisible.

“Wait, wait, wait! The text! It’s glowing in the black light!” Mabel exclaimed, drawing her brother's attention to this new discovery.

“What?” He was as surprised as the rest of you, and you all watched as he flipped through the pages, revealing more and more glowing hidden messages.

“All this time I thought I knew all the journal‘s secrets, but they’re written in some kind of invisible ink!” Dipper said in astonishment, his uncle echoing his words in shared astoundment.

“Invisible ink…”

Finally reaching the entry about zombies, Dipper said excitedly, “This is it!” And began to read aloud: “Zombies have a weakness! Previously thought to be invincible, their skulls can be shattered by a perfect four part harmony.”

A four part harmony? You thought. That’s oddly specific.

“Four part harmony, how can we create that? I have a naturally high pitched scream,” Dipper offered.

“I can make noises with my body, sometimes intentionally!” Stan volunteered. You suppressed a smile at that ridiculous statement.

“I can yell louder than the average person,” you proposed.

“Guys, guys,” Mabel interrupted. “I think you’re all missing the obvious solution.”

Cut to a few minutes later, the four of you are gathered on the roof with Mabel’s karaoke machine set up to the side, microphones in hand. You nervously gripped the mic in your sweaty palm as you observed just how big your undead audience was.

Is this even going to work? Is the last thing I do on this earth going to be singing karaoke? You pondered. Well I guess there are worse ways to go.

“Hello, hello? Is this thing on?” Mabel started doing her thing with the karaoke set up as the noise attracted more and more zombies who gathered below.

You gulped nervously, looking over at Stan for reassurance but he looked just as lost and unsure as you felt.

At least I’m not the only one questioning my life choices right now.

“Zombies and gentlemen!” Mabel announced. “I’m Mabel, they’re Dipper, Stan and Y/N, and together we’re Love Patrol Alpha!”

“I never agreed to that name!” Dipper quickly interjected, not even wanting monsters to associate him with his sister's goofy band name.

Mabel ignored him entirely and shouted, “Hit it!” cueing up the music.

The first beats of the classic 80s song began blasting from the speakers, the lyrics appearing on the device's screen with accompanying animated silhouettes of dancers.

Reading the first few lines, Stan commented, “Uh, Mabel, our lives may not be worth this.”

You had to roll your eyes at that, only Stan would say that getting eaten by zombies was preferable to singing one cheesy karaoke song.

As the first lyrics scrolled past, Dipper began to sing hesitantly.

“Friday night, and we’re gonna party till dawn. Don’t worry daddy, I’ve got my favourite dress on?” He covered the mic in embarrassment.

“Mabel this is stupid!”

Wanting to help encourage the boys to sing for their lives, you joined Mabel on the next verse and sang, bopping along to the beat.

“Roll into the party, the boys are looking our way. We just keep dancing, we don’t care what they say! And all the boys are getting up in my face-ahh!”

Yours and Mabel’s serenade was rudely interrupted by a zombie who had appeared at the edge of the roof, attempting to grab ahold of the closest victim.

“Guys! We have to sing together or it won’t work!” Mabel cried.

Your heart inadvertently began fluttering as you heard Stan join in with his gruff singing voice.

“Boys are a bore, let’s show ‘em the door,”

A wide grin overtook your face as you, the kids and Stan all harmonized together.

“We’re taking over the dance floor! Oh-oh, girls do what we like!”

The force of your singing combined sent a shockwave through the crowd of zombies, having an immediate effect on them, they covered their ears and several of their heads just straight up exploded. Emboldened by the effectiveness of the music, you sang the next lines even louder and more passionately along with the Pines family.

“Oh-oh, we’re taking over tonight! Oh-oh, girls do what we like! Oh-oh, we’re taking over tonight!”

The more the four of you sang, the more zombies began to succumb to the deadly sounds of karaoke. Skulls were exploding everywhere, covering the yard in a mess of green guts and flesh.

“We’re queens of the disco! Oh-oh, girls do what we like! Oh-oh, we’re taking over tonight!”

Dipper jumped in at the end to belt out the last line of the song.

“Taking over toniiiiight!”

Suddenly, a final zombie popped up next to him, making him scream, but Mabel was ready for it.

“DUCK!” she shouted, taking aim with a massive confetti cannon, which she shot with impeccable aim and sent the monster's head sailing through the air, finally landing in a punch bowl from the party earlier with a satisfying splash.

“Thank you, we’ll be here all night!” Mabel shouted triumphantly.

“Deal with it, zombie idiots! Ahahaha!” Stan gleefully hollered, laughing maniacally as he celebrated. You couldn’t help but laugh along with him, so relieved the nightmare was over and a little in disbelief that you’d just defeated an army of the undead with the power of karaoke.

“PINES! PINES! PINES! PINES!” The family jumped and chanted in unison, fully claiming their victory.

You giggled and shook your head at their antics, amused.

Well, that certainly could’ve gone worse, you thought to yourself as you watched the family cheer in celebration.

Link to chapter 2 below

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gravityskittles · 21 days ago

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Chapter 3: Nothing Short of a Hurricane

Stan hummed to himself as he counted the stitches in the sweater he was attempting for the fourth time. He knew this attempt would undoubtedly also get frogged before he finished it; he could see dropped stitches already and multiple places where he had lost count and caused weird bumps and uneven rows. He didn’t really mind. It was much better than his first attempt, where the yarn had gotten so tangled he had thrown it overboard in anger and then had to wait to try again for another week before they came to a port where he could buy more needles.

His goal was to have it finished by the summer. The idea of the glow in his great-niece's eyes when he presented her with his version of a ‘Mabel sweater’ helped him push on through the various frustrations of learning a new skill. Not that he would tell Ford that of course. He cast a warm glance over at his brother, who was hunched over scribbling in one of his endless notebooks. No, as far as Ford was concerned, Stan was learning to knit out of pure spite that a twelve-year-old could best him at anything, and Stan intended to keep it that way. He had his image to consider after all.

The Stan O’ War II rocked gently on a swell and then settled again. Ford leaned back slightly in his chair trying to catch more of the light from their lanterns to see the page he was working on. The lanterns were a necessity this far north as the winter sun had set hours before, leaving only starlight behind.

Stan supposed they both could work in the cabin, but ever since Fiddleford had invented his portable heat shield last summer, Ford had insisted on working outside in the evenings in the hopes of catching sight of more nocturnal anomalies. The heat shield wasn’t perfect, but it kept the temperature above freezing on the deck and warm enough for a few hours a day of tea, coats, and whatever hobbies they were focused on at the time.

With a contented sigh he picked up his teacup and looked up at the stars. It still astounded him how lucky he was. In the beginning he hadn’t been sure he’d ever be able to shake the feeling that he had somehow cheated, and any day everything he’d gained since Weirdmageddon would come crumbling down around him like a spent dream. These days however, that feeling was so faint he only really noticed it on mornings his memory was a little foggier than normal, or nights when he woke suddenly out of half remembered nightmares.

To be fair, the first year had been rough. Unsurprisingly, not everything had immediately resolved itself after the kids’ thirteenth birthday when Ford had asked him to come adventuring with him. It had taken time for the two of them to figure out how to exist with each other again, and sometimes it had felt absolutely impossible to bridge the gap that had formed between them. Ford was so used to doing things by himself he would often start out on adventures without telling Stan what the plan was, or even what they were looking for. More than once, he had left in their rowboat to seek out an anomaly of some kind while Stan was sleeping. It took months for Stan to finally get Ford to understand how much panic he would experience when his brother vanished like that.

Even then he suspected his brother had only finally understood it the morning Stan had woken up completely without his memories again and, for a few hours, Ford had been convinced he had lost him for good. After that day his brother had gotten a lot better about waking him up or inviting him along, before leaving.

It took even longer for both of them to agree they needed outside help. During one of the video chats with the kids, Mabel had pointed out that her grunkles were both staunchly ignoring the fact neither of them could sleep due to increasingly bad nightmares. She reminded them of the month Dipper lost so much sleep that he started hallucinating eyes following him everywhere, and Mabel drank so much caffeine that she became convinced Waddles was possessed. After that Stan and Ford had made her and Dipper start therapy. So, she reasoned, If they needed therapy, then Stan and Ford should have to go as well.

Ford had stiffly responded that the difference was that Dipper and Mabel were thirteen. Mabel had frowned and said something about how if anything, that made it worse, because it meant on top of the world destroying weirdness they had experienced together, Stan and Ford also had sixty or so years of other trauma.

Ford’s expression at that moment had made Stan laugh for the first time in weeks, and they had both begrudgingly agreed to look for another therapist similar to the one the twins were seeing. Much as he wished the kids hadn’t had to deal with quite so much weirdness that first summer, even Stan had to admit that Mermando’s connections had come in handy multiple times. Like really, where else were you going to find an ocean-based therapy network which already had a full understanding of the stranger parts of Earth and its sister dimensions?

Slowly, they had learned to live with each other again. And then, with more time, they learned how to thrive. Life now was an easy pattern, almost how it had been when they were kids. They picked up each other’s loose ends, filled each other’s empty spaces, annoyed the shit out of each other on the long days between anomalies. Ford recorded his research and plotted their courses while Stan cooked and kept the boat in order. They took turns being captain and one memorable day took turns punching pirates and cannibalistic mermaids (he was never planning to tell Mabel that particular story) and things had felt right again.

He still had his bad days, and so did Ford. They still grated against each other every so often and felt the ghosts of old wounds that would never really be gone. Sometimes, Stan would slip back into old habits and spend weeks refusing to communicate with his brother at all, instead trying to do things his own way to the detriment of them both. Sometimes, Ford would get that old paranoia back and accuse Stan of hiding things from him, or conspiring against him, when something went wrong with their plans or his research. After four years though, these episodes were less and less frequent and their apologies to each other were quicker each time.

He smiled to himself and took a drink of tea, grimacing a little as the whisky Ford had slipped into it burned his throat. Today had been a good day. The two of them had been following a pod of whales, navigating a large field of ice floes to chase down the occasional grey backs and spouts of water that stayed almost tauntingly out of their reach. The locals back at the last town they had docked in had told them about a strange unidentifiable whale that seemed to travel with the pod.

The glint in Ford’s eye at the third mention of this ‘not quite’ whale had been enough for Stan to pick up some extra supplies and suggest they head out early, hoping that they could celebrate the new year with a new cryptid finding. Now, the whales were resting just a few hundred feet off the bow and earlier Ford had been able to get some photos and sketches before the weak sunlight faded away. They were both hopeful that tomorrow they might be able to bait a drone of Fiddleford’s and catch some images of the cryptid under the water. Then the day after that would mean a video call with the kids, and hopefully a trip back to the coast to pick up a care package that Soos, Melody, and Wendy had sent for the holidays.

Stan smiled again and finished the last of his tea. Everything was perfect. Nothing short of a hurricane could ruin this New Year’s for him.

In the cabin, their satellite phone began to ring, startling him out of his reminiscing. A seagull flew up off the mast above him with an annoyed squawk. He glanced towards Ford, but his brother showed no signs of having heard the phone at all, instead seeming completely focused on the sketch from earlier which he was currently embellishing. Stan sighed and heaved himself up out of his chair to get the phone, taking his mug with him. Maybe he could at least grab some more whisky downstairs. It was the holidays after all.

It took a moment for the phone to connect. Even with the various extenders that Fiddleford had outfitted them with, communication was slow up here but, after a few seconds of waiting, he heard the line finally connect.

“Hello!”

“Stanley? It’s Martha.”

The voice on the other end of the line was so quiet he almost couldn’t hear it.

“Martha? What’s going on, is everything okay?”

“Have you heard from the kids today? I was hoping they contacted you and Stanford already.”

“Um.” He checked the calendar above the small sink in concern. Had they lost track of what day it was? “We weren’t expecting a call from them until the new year. It’s still the 30th right?”

“Listen Stanley I—” She broke off and for a moment he was afraid the call had dropped. A curl of dread was slowly settling across his shoulders, and he could feel his chest tightening.

“Martha are you there?”

“Stanley. Mike and Dipper had an argument this afternoon. It was…bad. Mike kicked him out of the house—”

Stan felt ice water pour over him. He couldn’t speak, couldn’t breathe. This couldn’t be happening, not again, not to Dipper. Please let him have heard wrong, let it be a stupid prank, let it be literally anything but the truth.

“Mabel went with him. Mike just about broke her arm trying to stop her but they both got out safely. They took her car, but I don’t know where they’re heading. That’s why I was hoping they called you” Martha trailed off and after a few seconds of quiet asked, “Stanley, are you still there?”

He tried to speak, and at first no sound came out. It took all of his energy to force out the words “What the fuck Martha?” In a slightly strangled voice.

“I’m sorry! I tried to get Mike to reconsider. Really, I did but—He doesn’t want them back—says he never really wanted kids anyway. I wish it didn’t have to be like this, I love them both so much. But I love Mike, Stanley, and I love DC. We were never much good at being parents anyway, especially not the last few years. I mean, with Dipper being how he is, it’s probably for the best, right? You and Stanford, you’ll—you’ll take care of them right?” There was another long silence during which the ice-cold horror in his stomach began making way for a white hot anger.

“Stanley? Please don’t be angry, I just wanted—”

He didn’t care what she wanted.

“Goodbye, Martha.” He growled into the phone, “I hope you and your sorry excuse for a husband live to regret today for the rest of your lives!” The last four words were a shout, vitriol lacing every syllable. He hung up. Then set the phone down gently on the counter and stood for a moment in utter silence, still clutching his empty mug in his other hand.

He didn’t notice when he let go, didn’t hear the crunching of ceramic shattering against the floor, or the sound of running footsteps on the deck. All he could hear was his pulse thundering in his ears. Images slid through his brain faster and faster: the kids hurt, in jail, trapped in alleyways and car trunks. Mabel dead. Dipper dead. Both of them kidnapped—in a car accident—in the hospital—panhandling on the side of the road. Gone, missing, dead. He couldn’t breathe.

He didn’t notice Ford’s hands on his shoulders, didn’t feel his brother pushing him down onto the couch, or hear his desperate pleas for Stan to calm down , to tell him what was wrong , to breathe . At some point he closed his eyes. Breathing hurt, his chest was tight, and his heart rate was too fast, and everything was wrong-wrong- wrong . The hurricane had come. He’d known this couldn’t last forever, and here it was. The final reveal of the universe’s joke come to call at last. Taking his family from him piece by piece, forcing them to relive his worst nightmare. His worst day.

Stan did notice Ford leave at some point and return with something he forced into Stan’s hands. The ceramic was cold and his fingers tightened reflexively around the handle. After a while Ford got him to drink some of it. The whisky burned and he coughed, for a moment focused on the spreading warmth. It wasn't enough to calm him down fully, but it was enough to pull him back into the present. He finally took a real breath and the tightness in his chest eased a bit. Ford’s concerned face swam back into view slowly as Stan opened his eyes, and the rushing in his head subsided until he could finally hear Ford asking:

“Stanley what happened? Who was on the phone?”

“Martha.” He said dully, voice sore from yelling.The panic and fight drained out of him slowly as the reality of the situation sunk in.

“The twins’ mom? What happened? Are they okay?” Fear began to grow in Ford’s eyes and Stan tried to pull his thoughts into some semblance of order. He had to explain it. Ford would know what to do. Ford had to know what to do.

“Mike kicked Dipper out today. For good. Mabel went with him but—”

“Wait, Dipper!?” Ford looked shocked.

Stan paused and looked up with annoyance. Distantly he knew Ford didn’t mean anything by this but all the same he felt bitterness and old wounds began to rise to the surface. “Yes, Dipper.”

“I don’t understand—”

“I’m sorry Sixer, did you think Mabel was more deserving of being kicked out—”

“Jesus Stan, no! That’s not what I meant; I just don’t understand at all. Dipper’s a great kid— they’re both great kids!” He amended hastily. “But I just can’t think of a reason to kick either of them out. And Dipper is more,” Ford frowned, “traditional in terms of his interests and stuff.”

“Well,” Stan interjected gruffly, trying to shove his emotions to the side for a moment, “now that we’ve established which one of them you value more, would you like to hear the rest?”

“Stanley, don’t be difficult!” Ford spat back. Stan flinched away from him and Ford groaned, “Dammit.” He paused, scrubbing his face with his hands before taking a deep breath as if to steady himself. “I’m sorry, Lee. I didn’t mean it that way, you know that. It just surprised me. I never expected either of them to get kicked out, and I most certainly don’t think either of them deserve it. Are you completely sure you understood what Martha meant? Maybe she explained it poorly or you just—”

“She explained it perfectly well, Ford. Apparently Mike and Dipper had a fight about something and Mike kicked him out. She said Mabel trying to go with him set Mike off even more and he almost broke her arm.”

“But Mabel—”

“Yeah. Yeah she went with him. They’re together at least.”

“Better than me,” Ford mumbled so quietly Stan almost missed it.

He opened his mouth to respond when his brother suddenly sat up and grabbed his arm painfully hard.

“Did she say what the fight was about?” Without giving him a chance to answer he stood up and began pacing, rambling loudly, “I bet it was the tattoos. I should have stopped them, when Mabel called me I should have told her to wait until they were eighteen. That's what a responsible uncle would have done. I shouldn't have encouraged it, but it seemed safe enough and I hoped the symbols might have a protective quality and I knew it would impress you when you found out. Oh god this is all my fault—again—how many of my family can I get disowned? I shouldn't be allowed near them I—”

“Hey,” Stan grabbed his hand trying to pull Ford back towards him. “Hey!” He said louder standing up and grabbing his other hand forcing Ford to stand still. “Ford, stop it! I have no idea what you’re talking about but it doesn’t matter. This wasn’t your fault. Mike didn’t kick Dipper out over a tattoo—he kicked him out cause well.” He trailed off, suddenly unsure how much Ford knew about their great-nephew. “Mike didn’t really like who Dipper was.” He finished carefully.

“What are you talking about?”

Stan sighed, rubbing absently at his chest which still felt weird and tight. “Dipper and Mabel are identical twins Ford.”

His brother stared at him looking confused. “I am aware that they are twins. What on earth does that have to do with anything?”

“They’re identical twins, but Dipper is a boy.” He stared meaningfully at Ford, hoping the other would figure it out.

“Yes. Dipper is transgender right? That's the word people use now? He told me a couple summers ago, but I still fail to see how this is relevant, it's not a big deal.”

It was Stan’s turn to rub his hands across his face in frustration. It was great to know his brother understood the situation but also just like him to somehow still manage to completely miss the point. “Correct! To you, it's not.”

Ford’s eyes widened. “Wait. Wait what? It's been thirty years and people still care about stuff like that?? I assumed it wasn’t a big deal anymore, no one in Gravity Falls seemed to care, you didn't seem to care. I mean I know it's slightly different but, the whole town came to Blubs and Durlands’ wedding two years ago, along with most of their extended family. I assumed while I was away things got better.”

“They did, in some places. In other places not so much. Gravity Falls isn't the best metric for the average American town, Ford. Do you keep up with the national news at all?”

“I keep up with science news.” He said defensively.

Stan rolled his eyes, this was an issue for later. “Okay well. Now that we’ve gotten that straightened out. Mike has always been a little more like dad than the rest of the family. He hates Dipper. He has since he found out Dipper was a boy. It's why they were sent to live with me that first summer anyway—so Martha could find the guts to divorce him about it. He left for DC before the kids even got home, something I bet Shermie would have disowned him over if he’d still been alive. Martha thought he was getting better so she tried to make them all play happy family again. Apparently, she was wrong. Mike kicked Dipper out today. Mabel went with him. Martha told me she doesn’t know where they are, and that she thinks it’s for the best if they don’t try to go home again.” Now the worst part, the part he was dreading telling Ford at all. “She asked us to take care of them.”

Ford was silent and Stan couldn’t meet his eyes. Panic began to race through him again, he knew it wasn’t ideal. He knew his brother wasn’t always great with kids. He knew they were right in the middle of a scientific discovery, but. They had to do something. It was family dammit. He’d already wasted enough time as it was, he had to get Ford to listen, or at least to let Stan go get the kids by himself. “God Ford, I'm so scared. I know it's not something we were expecting but, anything could happen to them, and I keep thinking about all the shit that I went through. I know they have each other, and I know they’re probably better prepared but still. It's a big country and I keep thinking about them lost or hurt or dead or--”

“Right. So, let's go.”

He froze, looking up at Ford. “Just like that? You don’t need convincing to leave the whales or nothing?”

“I do wish to return here again someday, but for now, well, it's time to make up for past mistakes. Getting back will present some difficulty, given that you are still on the no fly list for North America, but we’ll figure it out. So, while I get us ready to head back to the mainland, give the kids a call. Tell them to stay put, wherever they are, and we’ll come get them.” Ford pulled him into a hug, and Stan let himself melt into it, relief washing over him as Ford finished calmly outlining the plan. “It will be okay Stan, I promise. No matter where they are, we’re going to bring them home.”

#whereverwegoau #gravity falls #my writing #writing #stan and ford #stangst #sea grunkles #panic attack #referenced child abuse #referenced trauma #trans dipper pines

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fallen-gravity · 3 years ago

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all for this family

“Grunkle Stan?” Dipper whispers. “Are you awake?”

“Kid?” Stan asks, which he supposes answers his question. Dipper’s standing in the entranceway of the living room, tugging awkwardly at the edge of his sleep shirt and doing his best to avoid eye contact with Stan. “What are you doing up? Thought I sent you up to bed an hour ago”

“I, uh..." he pauses. "I had trouble sleeping"

In which Dipper suffers from insomnia the night Ford returns home, and Stan notices a familiar pattern in the way he's behaving.

Notes:

( a gift for @discomore ) a very very belated happy holidays, Sara!! I had a lot of fun with your Dipper & Stan prompt, and decided to go down a path I haven't seen many people do before. I hope you enjoy it, because I had a lot of fun writing it!!

ily, and thank you for being a wonderful friend over the past year! I hope for many more together c:

AO3

Well that didn’t go the way Stan was expecting.

Sure, he could’ve predicted that the government was gonna be on his ass about the whole ordeal. If he’s being perfectly honest, he probably could’ve afforded to be a lot more careful about laying low. But when rescuing your brother from some other dimension requires gallons upon gallons of nuclear waste, then being careful isn’t really an option.

He even understands why the kids got upset at him. He’d tried to explain what was going on with them this morning, but some government jerks tackled him to the ground before he had the chance. He knows perfectly well that he would’ve been just as angry if he were in their shoes, so he can’t even bring himself to feel surprised about that, either.

What he wasn’t expecting was for Ford to sock him in the jaw instead of giving him a proper hello. No hug, no handshake, no thank you, just a punch to the face with the force of getting hit by a truck. Stan brings a tentative hand to his cheek, and winces at the pain of it.

Fantastic. It’s swollen. He’s going to need to ice that for at least a week. With an annoyed grunt, Stan pushes himself up from his recliner to make his way towards the kitchen for an ice pack.

Thirty years.

He spent thirty years working his ass off to get Ford back, and he still doesn’t want anything to do with him. He’d thought for sure that all that time alone in the portal would’ve given Ford some time to reflect and realize that yeah, maybe it is a bad idea to cut my twin brother out of my life and tell him to get lost.

That’s what he gets for coming from a family of stubborn jerks, he supposes. If Ford was still hung up on not getting into West Coast Tech, Stan supposes it’s his own fault for not seeing this coming, too. He almost wants to say that’s just the optimism in him, but he knows for a fact that his optimistic side was killed in a horrible tragedy when he was only seventeen and a half years old.

Whatever. He’s learned from plenty of experience that dwelling on it for too long is just gonna make things worse. He finally manages to find a bag of frozen peas after digging through all the half-eaten food in the fridge, and slams the door shut with just a bit more force than intended. He shoves the bag between his shoulder and his cheek because he can’t be bothered to hold it, and awkwardly shuffles back to his recliner. He’ll make his way to bed eventually, he promises himself, he just wants to wait until his cheek stops throbbing in pain first.

Just as Stan’s about to sit back down, he hears the creaking of footsteps from the other room, and internally groans in frustration. It’s probably just Ford coming out of his room to complain about him somehow making too much noise, or to gripe at him about how he needs the living room for his nerd research, or something equally frustrating, so he mentally blocks it out as he settles back into his seat. It’s not until the footsteps sound as though they’re in the same room with him that he pays them any mind, and it’s not until the other person begins speaking that he turns to look at them.

“Grunkle Stan?” Dipper whispers. “Are you awake?”

“I, uh…” he pauses, rocking back and forth on his feet. “I…had trouble sleeping”

Stan sighs. “I don’t blame ya, kid”

He really wouldn’t blame him, if he thought Dipper was telling the complete and honest truth. Half the town’s population is probably gonna be stricken with nightmares tonight, and they don’t even have the context as to why the gravity got all wonky and broken like that. But there’s something about the way Dipper’s holding himself, the way he’s not quite stepping into the room and the way he won’t look him in the eyes that’s telling Stan that there’s a lot more to it than just anxiety-induced insomnia.

You can’t lie to a pathological liar. Not without raising suspicion, anyway.

“S’ there something bothering you, kiddo?” Stan awkwardly scratches at his chin. “Y’know, besides the whole world almost ending thing?”

Dipper takes that as an invitation to step into the living room. “Mabel and I overheard you and Great Uncle Ford talking from upstairs” he sits down on the floor beside Stan’s recliner, and raises his hands in defense when Stan’s eyebrows rise. “We-weren’t eavesdropping on purpose, and we couldn’t really make out exactly what you were saying, but…I’m worried”

Well that’s just peachy. The last thing Stan ever wanted to do was get the kids mixed up in all of his personal family problems, but he supposes that’s what he deserves for all the mess he caused today. “Your sister up too?” Stan asks, turning his head to look for where his niece could be hiding.

“No, just me” Dipper awkwardly rubs his arm. “I, uh, actually waited until she looked like she was asleep to come back downstairs”

…Oh.

“Everything okay with you two, kiddo?” Stan frowns. He’d hate it if he were the one who wedged a rift between the two of them. “You’re not…” he rubs at the back of his neck awkwardly, not entirely sure how to go about putting this lightly. “You’re not mad at her about what happened in the basement, are you?”

Dipper’s eyes widen in horror. “Not at all!” he squeaks, his cheeks tinting pink with blush. “I’m…actually worried that she might be upset with me”

Stan raises an eyebrow. “What makes ya say that? Did she say something?”

“Well, no, but…” Dipper sighs. “Everyone’s always telling me that I overthink everything, but just before we said goodnight, she turned to me and promised me that we wouldn’t get all stupid like you and Great Uncle Ford did.” His face flushes an even darker shade of pink, and he looks as though he’s backtracking to better rephrase himself. “N-Not that what happened to you was that simple, or anything to brush off as stupid, but…” he sighs. “I’m afraid there’s something she’s not telling me”

Stan scrubs a hand down his face. “Kid, first of all, you’d have to royally screw up for your relationship with your sister to turn as sour as mine did with my brother. I already told you this morning that it’s unnatural for siblings to get along as well as you do. Second of all, and this may make me a hypocrite, but ya gotta realize that you should be talking to Mabel about this, right? You’re not doin’ yourself any good worrying yourself sick like this”

“I know,” Dipper sighs, and nervously grips his hair. “But what if she is upset at me? What if she thinks I’m upset at her? We spent all day today disagreeing about what would be the right way to think or the right thing to do, and now that I know that she was right all along I just feel like a big jerk”

“Hey, well I never said that you have to agree on everything. It’d be even scarier if you never fought about anything” Stan quips. “But if you keep all these ugly feelings to yourself, that’s how things are gonna spiral.” Stan points a finger in his direction. “But you shouldn’t have to worry about that kinda relationship stuff until you’re older. If Mabel’s anything like how I’ve gotten to know her over the summer, then I guarantee ya that she’s upset at ya. Even if she was, she seems like the hug-it-out type, so I wouldn’t worry too much about that”

Dipper laughs shyly. “Thanks, Grunkle Stan.” he replies, but the small smile on his face disappears just as quickly as it had appeared. “I still feel like a huge jerk, though”

“What, after all that helpful advice?” Stan places a hand to his chest in mock offense. “That was the smartest I’ve ever sounded! Now that Poindexter’s home I won’t have many more opportunities to look like the smart twin!”

He’d hoped that the joke would do something to lift the kid’s spirits, but for some reason that only seemed to make him even more upset.

“That’s just the thing!” Dipper whisper-shouts, dramatically throwing his hands in the air. “If I was the one at the button instead of Mabel, I would’ve pushed it, and Great Uncle Ford would’ve been trapped forever!” he grips his hair again, tugging at it with gentle force. “If I hadn’t been so caught up in the whole trust nobody mentality, then Mabel and I wouldn’t have gotten into that argument, and you and I wouldn’t have gotten into that argument, and you wouldn’t have felt so much pressure to-”

Stan places a hand on Dipper’s shoulder to stop the poor kid from passing out from hyperventilating too much. “Woah, woah, take it easy, kid!”

“But-”

“No buts” Stan cuts him off firmly, and it’s just enough to get Dipper to close his mouth. “Look, I don’t know if you’re expecting me to be mad at you for not trusting me, or whatever, but I already told you that it’s fine. I wouldn’t have trusted me either. Now I don’t know what you found out about me when you were snooping around my office, or the basement, but I’m sure I would’ve reacted the same way if I were in your shoes. Nearly ending the world to save a twin I never mentioned before? Sneaking around in a basement you never even knew existed? You’d have to be crazy to believe me without some sort of hesitation!”

Dipper frowns. “Mabel did”

“That’s because she sees the good in everyone! She could watch a guy rob a bank and assume he’s going to use the money to build a kitten shelter, or something” Stan exaggerates, shaking his head. “Point is, you and Mabel are different people. She’s always been the trusting type, and you’ve always been the nervous type. That’s not gonna magically change over the course of a single night, especially after a night like that”

There’s a pause where Dipper looks as though he’s processing what Stan said. Just before Stan can keep going, though, Dipper sighs. “I guess you’re right…again” he mumbles, nervously rubbing at the back of his head. “I just think at the end of the day, I’m just…embarrassed about the way I treated you”

“What, you mean the whole pushing me around and shoving me thing?” Stan quips, a smirk slowly spreading to his face. “Nah, as a matter of fact, I’m proud of you for the way you acted”

Dipper’s blushing again. “Y-You are?”

“A’course I am!” Stan grins, clapping a hand on Dipper’s shoulder. “You were protecting your family. Even when the big scary member of authority was telling you to stop, you kept going with what your gut was telling you was the right thing to do. That takes a lot of bravery, if you ask me”

Dipper’s blush deepens, and he’s starting to show a hint of a smile on his face again. “A-and you’re sure you’re not upset at me?”

“You kidding?” Stan’s grin widens. “Didn’t you hear what I said earlier? Everything I’ve worked for is all for this family. It touches my old man heart to know that kinda sentiment is genetic” he places a hand to his chest to exaggerate his point, but it seems to be enough to get Dipper to finally smile.

“Yeah,” Dipper murmurs to himself, before turning to Stan again. “Thanks, Grunkle Stan”

“Ah, don’t mention it, kiddo” Stan’s smile softens, and he ruffles Dipper's hair. “Now head on back to bed before your sister wakes up and comes looking for you”

“Okay, okay” Dipper rolls his eyes, but the sarcasm in it is broken midway by a yawn. “I’m going”

“Good,” Stan replies dryly, but he can’t keep the smile off of his face as he watches Dipper walk away. He’s just about to start getting ready for bed himself after he’s sure Dipper’s gone, but before he can even stand up from his recliner, Dipper pops his head back into the room.

“Oh, and Grunkle Stan?” He asks. “I, uh, know this isn’t exactly what you were looking for, but…uh,” he swallows, and Stan can see the blush returning to his face from across the room. “Thank you for bringing Grunkle Ford back. I think he appreciates it more than he’s letting on”

Stan blinks rapidly, but before he can even think of a proper response, Dipper slips away and heads back up the stairs to bed.

#my writing #gravity falls #gf server gift exchange #dipper pines #stan pines #dipper and stan bonding

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mysteryhackin · 3 years ago

Text

It’s time for Dungeons Dungeons and More Dungeons for @forduary ! Enjoy this fluffy contribution! (Also below the cut if you’d rather read it here)

No matter what Ford does, it seems like the Multiverse is doing everything it can to keep him from playing another game of DD & More D.

“I cast my final Spell of Discombobulation!” Ford said, and rolled his 38 sided die, crossing his fingers as he watched it move across the board. It stopped right in front of Dipper’s screen, and he looked at his great-nephew’s face.

“You rolled a 25, which means…” Dipper paused for a second. “You’ve defeated the Goblin King!”

“Excellent!” Ford clapped his hands together. “What next?”

“You find his tower is full of spell books and treasure, enough to keep you occupied and taken care of for the rest of your days,” Dipper continued. “The end!”

Ford let out a loud laugh. “Dipper, that was your best DD& More D campaign yet!”

“Thanks Grunkle Ford!” Dipper beamed.

Ford leaned in conspiratorially. “There’s still one more week before the summer’s over- shall we schedule in one more quest?”

“Oh, uh, I can’t,” Dipper said, suddenly unable to make eye contact. “I promised St- uh, Soos I’d help him with… some repairs to the Shack from… uh… that giant fruit bat…thing last week.” He rubbed the back of his head nervously. “I don’t know when I’ll be free-”

Ford quirked an eyebrow, mostly wondering why Dipper was lying but also wondering why his great nephew wasn’t better at it after a spending two summers with Stanley. “Very well,” he said, trying to hide his disappointment. “We’ll just have to begin a new campaign over videochat.”

Dipper’s face brightened in obvious relief and excitement. “Yeah, definitely!” he said, and started picking up the scattered papers in the TV room.

~*~*~*~*

“How’s it goin’, Stan Two?” Wendy said, glancing up from her magazine as Ford walked out of his lab into the gift shop.

“You know I’m technically Stan One,” Ford answered, the vending machine closing behind him.

Wendy shrugged. “Not to me.” She flipped a page in her magazine.

Ford snorted. “Speaking of,” he said, “Have you seen Stanley?”

“Nu-uh,” she answered, still not looking up. “I think he went into town?”

“Ah. Thank you, Wendy,” Ford said. “We were supposed to meet for lunch to plan-”

He was cut off by the chime of the door as Stan backed in carrying loads of boxes. “Wendy, give me a hand with this,” he called.

“You know I don’t work for you anymore, Stan,” she said with a grin, then went over to help him anyway.

“Yeah,” Stan snorted as he distributed the boxes. “But y’know you’ll get canned if I tell Soos how mean-Sixer!” he nearly dropped the boxes and only saved by some quick reflexes on Wendy’s part. “Whaddya doin’ here?” his eyes darted from Ford to the boxes.

“I live here, Stanley,” Ford answered dryly. “Would you like some help with-”

“Nope, nope, we got ‘em,” Stan said quickly. “Get these into the living room, will ya Wendy?” Stan asked, making his way towards that area himself.

“Are we still on for lunch?” Ford asked, slightly confused at how flustered his brother was acting.

“Yeah, just… just gimme a few minutes- I’ll be right there!” Stan called, and with some muffled swearing he and Wendy exited the giftshop to add the boxes to the ever growing pile of items to put on the Stan O’ War II for its next voyage.

“All right then,” Ford said uncertainly, and went outside to wait for Stan to be finished.

They spent a lively hour in Greasy’s Diner as they went over the last minute items they needed to purchase before once more setting sail, and after that they split up to get the shopping done quicker. Ford was also excited to use this time to gather supplies for the virtual campaigns he’d create with Dipper while they were out exploring- for one thing, he was running low on graph paper.

He walked into the stationary store, the little bell cheerfully ringing, and headed to the back area marked “School Supplies”, unable to keep from smiling as he saw a few kids and their parents here and there getting ready for the beginning of school next week-

But he stopped cold at the empty shelf in front of him. He looked down at the price tag at the bottom of the shelf, hoping the emptiness belonged to some other item… and deflated as he read ‘Graph Paper Book, $2.99’.

Ford stood looking at the empty shelf helplessly, when he caught sight a young woman wearing the store uniform out of the corner of his eye. “Excuse me, ma’am?” he flagged her down.

“Miss,” she corrected, narrowing her eyes at him. “You’re a Pines, aren’t you?”

Ford sighed. “Yes, but my twin brother sometimes-,”

“Yeah, I’ve called the cops on him a couple of times,” she interrupted, her skull earrings jiggling as she shook her head. “He paid with fake money during Summerween last year, and tried to steal a bunch of stuff when he was buying lightbulbs." She pointed a finger at him. "You’re not going to try to steal anything, are you?”

“No.” Ford put up his hands vehemently, wondering why after facing so many monsters in his life this young lady was scaring him so much. “I just wanted to know if there was any graph paper left.”

She glanced over his shoulder at the empty shelf. “Oh weird. We usually don’t sell out of that stuff. No, sorry, we won’t get another shipment for two weeks.” She stared him down for a few more moments, then abruptly turned, her dark ponytail swishing as she walked away.

Discouraged, Ford left to go pick up the other things on the list.

~*~*~*~*

The night before they left Gravity Falls, Ford was tearing the house apart and muttering to himself.

“Uh, Dr. Pines?” Soos asked as Ford looked under the couch in the living room. “Is everything OK?”

Ford sat back and looked up at Soos, adjusting his glasses. “You haven’t seen my Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons Volume 1 Rule Book, have you?”

Soos stared at him. “Um…”

“Didn’t you already pack that thing?” Stan came swooping in, scratching himself and yawning as he casually stood in front of Soos. “And do you know how late it is? We gotta get going real early.”

“I think I would have remembered if I packed it,” Ford said, a little frustrated.

“Oh c’mon, half of our boxes are full of books,” Stan answered. “I don’t think there’s a book left in this house.”

“Stanley, this book has all of my notes from this past year of campaigns with Dipper in it. Quests, stories, inside jokes…”

“All right, all right, keep your sweater on,” Stan said grumpily. “Me and Soos’ll help you find it. You start with the boxes in here, we’ll go check out the ones in the truck.”

Ford systematically went through the last few boxes that were stacked in the living room, but half an hour later Stan walked in, waving the book with a smug look on his face. “Got it, Sixer.” He said, and proudly gave it to Ford.

“Oh finally,” Ford said, grateful for the familiar worn cover in his hands. “You know, lately I feel like everything has been conspiring against me getting to play this game again. Dipper couldn’t play one last game before we went home, there were no books of graph paper left at the store, and then this went missing…” He paused, then chuckled as he shook his head. “Now I know it was just a coincidence, but sometimes you can get so focused on what’s going wrong, it seems like the multiverse is out to get you.”

“Heh, yeah, the multiverse...” Stan laughed, “Yeah, it’s definitely time for you to go to sleep,”

~*~*~*~*

It had been about a week since Ford and Stan had set sail, and they were once again getting into the rhythm of things. The autumn weather was perfect for their first few days, and already they had picked up the trail of some seagull/parrot hybrids. Ford was lost in thought up on the deck, trying to figure out what to call the species when they were finally able to catch up, when he noticed he hadn’t seen Stanley around for a while. He checked his watch and realized it was probably time to start dinner anyway, and headed belowdecks.

“Stanley, what do you think about ‘Paragulls’? Does it sound too much like ‘a pair of gulls’? Or maybe we should just drop-” he stopped as he saw Stan sitting at the table, most of him hidden behind a Dungeons, Dungeons, and More Dungeons Screen.

Stan cleared his throat awkwardly. “Welcome, uh, Wizard of the Southern Mountains,” he handed Ford a graph paper notebook. “Your quest, should you choose to accept it, is to find and defeat the merciless Barbarian Horde of the North, led by the feared, mysterious, and extremely handsome Rogue King,” Stan gave him a smile. “That’s me.” He said. “So... whaddya think?”

Ford flipped through the notebook to see detailed descriptions of his character’s powers, a map of several kingdoms, and items his character had. “What is this?”

“Well, uh, you always seemed to have so much fun whenever you were playing this, so I thought I’d better learn,” Stan said. “Even though it is just about the nerdiest thing I’ve ever heard of. But… yeah. Since it’s important to you, it’s important to me.”

“Stanley,” Ford started, a warm feeling growing in his chest.

“Don’t worry, I’ve been practicing with Dipper all summer, and we played the first game I made up the last week before he went home.” Stan said in almost a rush. “An’ I bought out all the graph paper notebooks they had in Gravity Falls, so we won’t run out, an’ I’ve been studyin’ your rule book- heh, I almost got caught there, but I made a copy of it so you could get it back.” Stan leaned back and folded his arms. “I was pretty proud of that quick bit of thinking. An' you wouldn't believe how hard it was to keep it a surprise-”

“You were just tired of me beating you at cards,” Ford chuckled, knowing his brother wasn't going to accept sentiment at this point.

Stan straightened up and pointed an accusing finger at his brother as Ford sat down. “You only won because you cheated with that weird Lottocron Nine system of playing that y’ won’t teach me,” he said, then smiled wickedly. “But you won’t be able to cheat your way outta this one.”

“I’d be more concerned about you cheating,” Ford grinned, picking up the 38 sided die.

“Probably a smart way to start,” Stan conceded. “OK. So, you…uh… wake up to a pounding at your door…”

#forduary #forduary week two: dungeons dungeons and more dungeons #gravity falls #I couldn’t think of a good story #that took place in the DD&MD universe #because I just adore the Pines family as fantasy characters #but have been immensely enjoying everyone’s awesome contributions #haha another example of how different things would be if I had any art skills #ford #dipper #wendy #stan #soos #fanfic #dd&md

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ladylynse · 3 years ago

Text

Chapter 7 [FFN | AO3] of Forewarning

All Dipper knew was that there was something buried in some special thermos behind the shack; all Danny knew was that he had no idea how he’d gotten here.

Based off this artwork by @hashtag-art. For @geronimo-alonzi, who requested an update as their prize for my follower fic giveaway.

(beginning | previous)

-|-

Danny didn’t know if he had to stick around to see the portal finished and personally face whatever came out of it, but Mabel was right. Clockwork’s warning hadn’t been so they’d stop what they were doing. It had been so they’d be prepared. And Danny was part of those preparations.

Clockwork, who acted like something of a mentor to Danny, now expected Danny to act like a mentor himself.

A little warning would have been nice. Or actually being asked.

Danny pulled the thermos out of his pocket, which earned him identical pairs of raised eyebrows. Clearly, neither of them had thought it would fit there. Maybe they were newer to this whole magic thing than they’d let on, since he doubted magic was terribly different from some of the things ghosts could do. At least the thermos was serving as a sufficient distraction from his slip about the portal. “Okay, before I hand this over, you need to promise you’re not going to turn it on and suck me in there.”

“We promise. Right, Dip-Dip?”

Dipper scowled. “If you don’t give us a reason to use it, we won’t.”

Okay, yeah, he wasn’t going to get anything better than that out of Dipper right now. Danny just wouldn’t tell him that the thermos was useless while he was Fenton and not Phantom. He passed it to Mabel, who started turning it over in her hands, and Dipper leaned over for a closer look.

“Right now, that will only work on ghosts, but I think we can modify it for other stuff. It should be able to contain anything noncorporeal.”

“Like?”

“You’re the one with a book full of weird things. You tell me.”

Dipper and Mabel exchanged glances but didn’t enlighten him. Fine. If he needed to know, there was plenty of time to find out later.

“It’s pretty simple. You just take the cap off, aim, and press the button on the side to activate it. I’ve primed that again, so it’ll work; it was nearly out of power before.” He didn’t need to get into the details, like how it was powered by ectoplasm and that’s why a single charge lasted as long as it did. Though, if they were going up against something that wasn’t a ghost, that charge wouldn’t self-renew for nearly as long as a typical charge in Amity Park. “The circuitry’s still intact, so if I just tweak the code a little, you should be good. Hopefully. At least for a little while. I’ve never seen a ghost break out of the thermos—” the Box Ghost might be an exception, but Danny wasn’t going to think about that right now, much less tell them that “—but that doesn’t mean it can’t happen.”

Tweaking the code would be a lot easier with Tucker around to do it for him, but just because this would be the first time Danny was modifying something without Tucker looking over his shoulder, didn’t mean it was doomed to failure.

It couldn’t be, if this really were Clockwork’s grand plan, and he hadn’t stepped in to interfere yet or otherwise nudge Danny towards the correct path. Danny was pretty sure he’d do that, at least if the current path was going to make things way worse.

“How are we supposed to tweak this?” Dipper asked, not taking his eyes off the thermos.

We. Not you. More likely a sign of mistrust than solidarity, but Danny just explained as best he could anyway. At least if he was talking about this, he wasn’t talking about the portal, and if he could just get the twins far enough off that topic, then he could pretend he’d never mentioned it at all—

The sound of a vehicle pulling up distracted them all. Dipper shoved the journal out of sight under his vest again and Mabel hid the thermos in her lap, but the twins relaxed when they saw the car. “Grunkle Stan’s back,” Mabel said, ignoring the way Dipper immediately hissed her name.

Grunkle Stan. Stan. So that was Secret Lab Guy’s name. Danny could see him clearly enough as he got out of the car, and he was wearing the same clothes, so it (probably) wasn’t just a lookalike. (From the little Danny had seen of this place, not to mention his general experience with shapeshifters and clones, he was not keen on assuming anything.)

Stan waved at them and started to walk over. “Hey, kids, who’s your friend?”

Danny blinked, about to reassess his judgement that this guy didn’t have a twin, too, but then he noticed how intently Stan was looking at him and realized that not telling the twins about the portal involved pretending they hadn’t already met, too. “Danny Fenton,” he said, holding out a hand.

Stan shook it and then said, “You here for a tour?”

“He had it already,” Mabel said. “Can he stay for supper, Grunkle Stan? Wendy said we can do a wiener roast. She bought more marshmallows and everything!”

Dipper glowered. Danny plastered a smile on his face. Stan pretended to dither for a moment before melting and giving in.

Stan didn’t mention the journal, so Danny didn’t, either. Maybe Stan just thought it was a weird thing to bring up out of the blue? Or, more likely, he assumed Dipper hadn’t yet told Danny, a kid he supposedly knew nothing about—?

The implications made Danny’s head hurt. That was more Jazz’s or Sam’s territory than his.

Whatever. If Dipper could give him an idea of what he might need to tweak the thermos for, he should’ve picked up enough knowledge from Tucker to know what to change when it came to reprogramming it. (He did know how to do more than just program stuff to ignore Phantom—or at least not hit him with the full force of whatever-it-was, depending on the weapon and how obvious the tampering would be.) He could probably get it done before supper, too. It wouldn’t be the first time he’d had to do a rush job before his parents came home and caught him at it—or just straight up noticed that their new prototype was missing, which was frankly more likely, since he didn’t do his fiddling in the lab unless there was a serious chance of it resulting in an explosion.

Stan shuffled off, Danny scooted closer to the twins as Dipper pulled out the journal again and Mabel produced the thermos, and they got to work.

-|-

Mabel didn’t really understand what Danny and Dipper were doing with the thermos, but she trusted Dipper to keep his word, so she didn’t feel too bad about leaving them to it about ten minutes into a discussion she couldn’t follow anyway. Danny had tried to explain some of it to her when Dipper had sneaked into the toolshed for a screwdriver, but he might as well have been speaking another language for all she’d understood.

Instead, she skipped past Grunkle Stan and Soos—all she caught of that conversation as she passed by was something about hauntings and advertising, so tourist stuff—and found Wendy at the fire pit. Wendy had already found the campfire forks—they were leaning up against the tree near where Grunkle Stan usually sat—and the ashes from the previous fire had been replaced with fresh wood. Two bags of marshmallows poked out of a grocery bag nearby, and—

Mabel frowned.

A box of salt?

“Hey, Mabel!” Wendy said, smiling easily at her. Mabel almost missed the fact that she moved to stand in front of the box of salt and gently nudged it behind one of the logs with her foot. “You and Dipper finish gathering some deadwood for tinder? We’ll need it to get this started. I’ve still got some cattail fluff from last fall, but we’ll need something between that and these larger logs. Stan likes to cheat and toss some gasoline on there, but you two should know how to build a fire before the summer’s out.”

Mabel nodded. “We stacked it by the wood pile, the kindling’s in a box, and Dipper split some more wood for later, too.” She hesitated for only a beat before adding, “Grunkle Stan said our friend Danny could stay for supper. Do we have enough hot dogs?”

“Danny?” Since she was looking for it after that box of salt, Mabel didn’t miss the way Wendy’s expression froze, though she’d schooled her face into its usual relaxed expression a second later. Huh. Mabel hadn’t realized Wendy knew anything was off about Danny. “The kid who was in earlier?”

“Yeah, he came back to visit.”

Already? But Wendy didn’t vocalize the question Mabel could see written on her face, instead shrugging and saying, “Cool. Yeah, there’s plenty of food.” She paused. “His parents know he’s here?”

“He phoned earlier.” It was a lie wrapped in a truth, and she felt a bit bad about that, but she was pretty sure Danny would rather explain everything to Wendy himself. Assuming he would explain it to her. Mabel hoped he would. If there really was something coming, something bad enough to merit forewarning, they should all know about it.

The journal entry had her stumped, though. If the bit in green ink wasn’t for Danny, who had it been written for? And in a different code than everything else, no less? Maybe the message was actually for that Clockwork Danny had mentioned? Or from him, just not meant for any of them? If he really knew what was coming—

Wendy hummed. “We can get some pretty weird folks coming through here. Mystery Shack ‘n’ all.”

Mabel blinked.

Was that a warning? From Wendy? Sure, Danny hadn’t made the best first impression on Dipper—or her, come to that, but she was a lot more willing to trust him than Dipper—but Wendy wouldn’t have met Phantom. And Danny had said himself that he was as much human as ghost, more or less, so it’s not like he was that bad at faking it when you hadn’t seen both sides. So what had Danny done to put Wendy so on edge?

And then Mabel remembered that Wendy had thrown a box of baking soda or something into the air after Danny had not so subtly taken up knocking on walls. She hadn’t seen any evidence of Danny then, but what if Wendy had? She’d clearly connected it to Danny, not Phantom. Granted, Mabel was pretty sure that Wendy wouldn’t be fooled by Phantom any more than she and Dipper had been by Danny, but….

“He’s a friend,” Mabel repeated firmly. Dipper might not believe it, but she did. “And everyone’s a little weird sometimes, so he just fits right in.”

Wendy didn’t manage to pull her frown into a smile before Mabel noticed. “Sounds about right,” she said. She dropped to a crouch in front of the campfire and looked up at Mabel, saying, “Here, wanna try building this yourself? I’ll tell you about the different styles.”

Wendy’s stack of wood looked perfect already, but Mabel was curious, so she accepted the subject change for what it was and dropped to her knees opposite Wendy. “Sure!”

-|-

Dipper still didn’t trust Phantom—Danny—whatever he wanted to be called, not by a long shot, and he wasn’t sure he could trust everything Danny was doing with the thermos that had once contained him, but it didn’t blow up in their faces, so that was a plus. Dipper wasn’t entirely sure it wouldn’t backfire if he was forced to use it, though. He was half tempted to bury the thing behind the Mystery Shack again after finding an excuse to send Danny away to find Mabel, even if it was empty.

“Who’s Tucker?” Dipper finally asked after Danny muttered the name yet again.

“One of my best friends,” was the absent answer as Danny squinted at circuitry they definitely wouldn’t be able to alter without a soldering iron or something similar. “He’s good at this kind of thing. Way better than me.”

“So why should I trust that you know what you’re doing?”

Danny frowned at him. “Is there any way I can answer that question and not have it come back on me?”

Probably not. Dipper shrugged. Danny huffed and started to screw the panel back into place. Since he hadn’t done anything to it beyond pressing a hidden button, Dipper hoped that meant everything was in order, that the hack would work. Danny claimed he had managed to return the thing to what he said were the equivalent of its factory settings, but Dipper wasn’t entirely comfortable with having to take his word for everything.

It barely seemed better that Danny was doing all the work on it. Sure, if it exploded, it would be in his hands. Then again, if he decided to turn it into a weapon that he could use against the rest of them, rather than one that worked on him, Dipper didn’t have the knowledge to stop him.

He suspected Danny knew that, even if Dipper was doing his best to pretend that he knew what was going on.

“How can we be sure that what you’re doing is going to work?” It wasn’t much of a different question than before, but it was certainly a valid one in Dipper’s opinion.

“Remember when I said my parents built this? I’m really familiar with this design. With all their designs. I know how they think, and I can figure this out, even without Tucker looking over my shoulder. It would just be faster with Tucker.”

He’d managed to pull up a menu on the display, so he might not be making things up completely. Dipper decided that if he had to trust Danny, then trusting him not to do something that would harm them would be the first step—and trusting him to try to do this could be the second, even if that would be a work in progress and very much contingent on Danny not going berserk on them. “Fine. I don’t suppose you’d be willing to test it?”

Danny scowled. “You could at least pretend to trust me.”

“Well, if it doesn’t work on you, then it either means you broke it or did what you’re trying to do, doesn’t it?”

“No. I’m going to expand what can be captured, not exclude ghosts from that. You guys might wind up facing down a ghost, and a thermos is a good thing to have in your back pocket. So if it doesn’t work on me, then it’s broken, but it’s not broken, because if it were, Clockwork would’ve talked to me by now.”

“You seem pretty confident about that considering you said he doesn’t like to interfere.”

“He pretends he doesn’t like to interfere. I think he tries not to be too blatant about it.” Danny looked up at him. “I know how this sounds, but I’m not working against you. I really just want to get home, and this is the only way I know how to do it.”

He sounded sincere. At least, he sounded a lot more sincere than he had when he’d first talked to them. He might not be saying everything, but Dipper could believe that Danny was telling the truth now.

Dipper still wasn’t sure where the truth got them. None of them knew what was coming—except apparently this Clockwork guy. All they knew was that, whatever it was, it was supposed to be bad, which wasn’t exactly a whole lot of help. How were they supposed to prepare for something bad without knowing what that something was?

For all that Danny claimed he didn’t know what was coming, Dipper would’ve bet that Danny had a pretty good guess—or at least a better guess than Dipper himself did. He could think of entirely too many possibilities; the journal talked about everything from gnomes to interdimensional beings.

Speaking of which— “What were you saying about a portal earlier?”

Danny froze, and Dipper would’ve had to have been blind not to read the guilt on his face. “What?”

“You said something about a portal. What was it?”

Danny purposely returned to screwing on the panel—or rather, unscrewing it, loosening it just enough to give himself something to do. As if Dipper couldn’t recognize a stall tactic that obvious. Without meeting Dipper’s eyes, Danny said, “That’s not important.”

He didn’t try to claim he hadn’t mentioned it, which seemed like an improvement over earlier, but that didn’t mean Dipper was happy. “I’m pretty sure it is. You talked about interdimensional safety before, and then you mentioned a portal.”

Danny grunted.

“Not telling me what you know isn’t going to make this any easier. And it might take you even longer to get back home.” However that was supposed to work.

Danny tightened the last screw (again), dropped his hands still holding the thermos and screwdriver into his lap, and looked up. “Fine. Interdimensional travel? Risky. Trying to straight up drill a hole between dimensions? Risky. Trying to even communicate with beings from other dimensions? That can be risky, too. It isn’t always, but it can be. What we’re doing with this?” He lifted the thermos. “It’s barely more than a precaution. Just because you have a thermos, doesn’t mean you’re going to have an easy time getting anything into it. If anything is too strong, the thermos won’t be able to pull it in until you weaken it so they can’t fight back, or at least not fight back as much.”

Dipper was not about to let him get away with not mentioning the portal. “So the portal—?”

“When I said I was in a lab accident? It was a portal accident. I know a thing or two about portal safety, not that it helps me now. Pro tip: don’t put the ‘on’ button on the inside. If you have to do that, at least make it a switch so you can keep it in the on position and just plug it in and unplug it when you need to turn it on and off.”

Dipper frowned. “You think repeatedly pulling the plug is better than having things safely shut down whenever you want to turn it off?”

“No, I think you should have a design where safe shut downs and not just emergency shut downs are actually a thing. Not having a kill switch is just as dangerous, though. There isn’t necessarily going to be time to shut everything down safely when something is coming through to kill you and everyone you care about.”

Dipper blinked.

“That one’s not from personal experience,” Danny said as he let the thermos drop into his lap beside the screwdriver. “A kill switch wouldn’t have helped in that case.”

“What—?” Dipper broke off. “Never mind.” Danny was trying to distract him, and it was working. He couldn’t let Danny get away with changing the subject like that. “Why did you mention a portal in the first place?”

“I dunno, because interdimensional safety kinda implies portal?”

Dipper growled. Danny wanted to feign ignorance and play innocent? Fine. Dipper could spell it out for him. “Not in relation to you, to us.”

Danny lifted one hand to rub at the back of his neck. “Look, this place is weird. A portal to somewhere else being involved somehow is a distinct possibility. If that’s not why it’s weird, it might be appealing to people who are interested in why things are the way they are around here. That’s why my parents chose to set up shop where they did.”

Dipper was well aware that he’d only scratched the surface of the mysteries within Gravity Falls, but he hadn’t exactly gotten the impression that Danny had been talking hypothetically earlier.

“Is it really that hard to believe that I just want to protect people?” Danny asked. “How many times do I have to tell you I just want to help?”

“You just want to go home,” Dipper countered, “and helping us is apparently the only way you can do it. Forgive me if it’s hard to believe that some of your help isn’t as helpful as it could be.”

Danny groaned. He got to his feet, handed Dipper the thermos and the screwdriver, and said, “Fine. Try the thermos on me. Be satisfied with the fact that it works and that I didn’t sabotage it. Then you can let me out again so I can keep helping you.”

Dipper glared but took the thermos in one hand and pocketed the screwdriver with the other. He thought about asking what was stopping him from just keeping Danny in the thermos after he tried it out—assuming it worked—but decided Danny might come out with some drawled ‘your conscience’ response, even though ‘your sister’ would have been more accurate.

“It’s really easy,” Danny was saying. “All you do is unscrew the cap and turn it on or turn it on and unscrew the cap, depending on whether it’s off or on standby. I’ve got it on standby right now, so you only need to take off the cap, but you’ll want to turn it off to save power once we’re done because this thing runs on ecto-energy. If you have anything inside, it’ll stay contained until the power is completely drained. Clear as mud?”

Dipper didn’t bother returning Danny’s smile.

Danny sighed, turned the thermos in Dipper’s hand, and pointed at a button. “The release button is clearly labelled. Take the cap off and press it. That’s it.” He hesitated. “Well, don’t drop it when the cap is off unless you have the release button locked.” He thumbed a slide next to the button, pulling it down to the little icon of the open lock, and the display on the side briefly flashed UNLOCKED in green letters before returning to EMPTY.

It hadn’t exploded yet, so Dipper figured it might be safe to use.

“Let’s just go farther away from the shop,” Danny muttered, glancing over and the Mystery Shack. “I don’t want to do this where the others can see. Scaring your cashier once today was enough.”

Dipper glanced sideways at him but let Danny pull him into the trees. “Wendy?”

“Yeah, I think that was her name.”

“Wendy doesn’t scare easily.”

“Okay, then being threatened by your cashier once today was enough,” Danny amended.

“She knows ghosts are real.”

“Clearly.”

“No, I mean— You aren’t the first ghost she’s met, either.”

“Tell her to visit Amity Park, and I won’t be the last. Well. She might run into me again, but I won’t be the only ghost there.” He paused. “I think.”

Dipper waited.

Danny did not explain.

Naturally.

Dipper let Danny walk in silence for another ten seconds or so until the shack was masked by a familiar mix of deciduous and evergreen trees. Somewhere overhead, a bird trilled, and there was a nearby rustle as a chipmunk made a mad dash for a tree. Dipper took some comfort in the fact that the local wildlife hadn’t immediately made itself scarce in Danny’s presence, but he still asked, “Are we far enough away that you’re comfortable telling me what else you’ve been hiding? Because if you’re hoping none of them would hear me scream in pain from here, we need to go farther.”

Danny rolled his eyes. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

“And you’re not going to talk, either?”

“I’m not hiding anything else.”

Dipper raised an eyebrow. “You’re a terrible liar.”

“Which means you should believe me when I say I’m only trying to help you!”

Dipper bit his lip and then made his decision, handing Danny back the thermos. “I’ll trust you that this will work,” he said as Danny hesitantly reached out for it, “and I’ll trust that your warning wasn’t intended to dig us into deeper trouble. But I don’t believe that you’ve told me everything we need to know.”

“I’ve told you everything I can right now,” Danny said, gripping the thermos as if he expected Dipper to try to yank it back out of his hands at those words. “Everything important, anyway.”

Maybe it was a passing cloud that obscured the leaf-filtered sunlight that had speckled Danny’s black hair as he said that. Maybe it was the wind blowing the trees and shifting the leaves overhead. Somehow, Dipper doubted the cause was truly so innocuous. The sudden shift to shadow caused his skin to crawl—especially when the light didn’t return within a few heartbeats.

Danny didn’t give any indication that he noticed, or at least not that he felt that something was wrong, so Dipper didn’t know if this was Danny’s doing or something else within the forest itself.

Even if the author had managed the great feat of discovering all the secrets of Gravity Falls, Dipper hadn’t found and read the other journals. He didn’t know what he was missing.

There was too much he still didn’t know, and Danny was making it abundantly clear that he wouldn’t say anything else.

For all Dipper knew, he’d recognized the strange code in the journal after all.

“Dipper!”

That was Mabel. The call wasn’t urgent, just pitched so that her voice projected far, most likely because she didn’t know where he was or if he’d gone inside. Her mind wouldn’t have jumped to all the things Danny could have done to him when they were alone, though given that none of the things Dipper had come up with had happened, perhaps he shouldn’t have been so quick to think it, either.

Still.

A little wariness never hurt anyone, right? Especially in Gravity Falls.

“Grunkle Stan said we could roast some marshmallows before our hot dogs, and I’m going to eat yours if you don’t get your butt over here!”

Danny offered Dipper a weak smile. “Guess it’s supper time, huh?”

“Can you even eat?” Dipper asked, not realizing how rude that must sound until after the words had left his mouth. “I mean, uh—”

“I can eat,” Danny said, and this time his smile looked genuine, a spark of laughter reaching his eyes. “Food I don’t have to make myself that I also don’t need to hunt down when it comes alive and goes feral? Count me in.”

It was a distraction from their earlier conversation. Dipper knew that.

Knowing that, however, was not enough to stop him from repeating, “Comes alive and goes feral?”

Danny’s smile twisted into a definite smirk. “Let’s just say that holidays at my house involve more famine than feast, at least until we get everything cleaned up and can order take out.”

“Dipper! Danny? Where did you guys go?”

“Coming!” Dipper called back. He glanced at Danny, wondering if he had anything else he wanted to share before they went back.

“Truce?” Danny asked, holding out his hand. “I mean, we kinda had one before, but officially now? Where we help each other?”

One deal with a phantom (not-phantom) kid shouldn’t backfire on him, so Dipper nodded and shook Danny’s hand. “Truce.”

He’d shaken on sketchier deals in the past, and if something came back and bit him over the course of this summer, Dipper didn’t think it would be this.

(see more fics | next)

#danny phantom #gravity falls #phantom falls #crossover #dp/gf crossover #fanfiction #my writing #ladylynse #snippets #crossover snippet #dp snippet #gf snippet

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august-anon · 4 years ago

Text

Tickle Monster

sequel to Tickletober 2020 Day 13 - “Wake Up!”

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Someone on ao3 asked about a sequel to that fic literally in October of 2020, and mentioned it again in Jan of this year, and I’m finally posting this. I am so sorry this took ages, whoever you were, I hope you enjoy this lol

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Fandom: Gravity Falls

Ship(s): Gen!!!!!!

Characters (lee/ler): Lee!Ford,Mabel,Dipper,Stan, Ler!Ford,Mabel,Dipper,Stan

Word Count: 1720 words

Summary: Dipper and Mabel complete their mission, distracting Great Uncle Ford, with flying colors. Unfortunately for them (and for Stan), Ford knows how to fight back.

[ao3 link]

ALSO: warnings for some light angst in the beginning because apparently i can’t write Ford as not angsty lol

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Ford sighed as he watched Stanley go, that lost, desperate look still in his eyes. He really didn’t know what to do to help him at this point, and that hurt more than Ford had been prepared for.

It seemed that he just kept failing people.

He started this whole thing. He came to Gravity Falls in the first place. He brought Bill into this world. He was foolish and naive and power-hungry enough to listen to Bill’s lies. He built the portal Bill wanted, not considering the dangers. And he failed to protect his family, Stan especially.

And now his own brother could barely remember him.

Ford forced himself out of his thoughts as he moved toward the refrigerator. He said he’d make breakfast, so that’s what he’d do. Eggs could be easy enough, maybe even omelettes? Or perhaps pancakes, they were probably easy, right? They were just flour and eggs… and maybe they had some sugar in them? He’d figure it out.

He let out a bitter smile as happy, childish laughter rang out from the attic. Stan was a far better great-uncle than he was, even with his lapses in memory. It wasn’t really all that surprising to Ford.

Ford hadn’t really made all that much effort to be good with the kids, after all. Yet another failure of his.

He continued to struggle with breakfast, his bowl of pancake batter looking more like foaming grey sludge than anything edible. It seemed his multitudes of knowledge didn’t extend to cooking. He was debating starting over, maybe trying to actually find a recipe somewhere in this old shack, when he heard tiny footsteps thundering down the stairs.

“Great Uncle Ford!” Twin voices rang out.

Ford turned away from the counter, plastering a smile on his face that was probably more of a grimace. Dipper and Mabel slid into the kitchen on socked feet, giddy and giggling. A far cry from the tear-streaked faces he saw when he checked on them at night, making sure they were still there and alive, and finding them curled together in one of their tiny twin beds, clearly shaken by nightmares.

“Hello, kids,” he said. “You’re rather awake for the early hour.”

Mabel gave him a mischievous grin. “We’ve been tasked with distracting you.”

Ford furrowed his brow. “What--”

The two launched themselves at him and Ford’s eyes went wide in shock. He reached out to catch them so that they wouldn’t slip and hit the floor (tile floor and heads did not mix, Ford remembered that well from tussling with Stanley back in the day), but in doing so he overbalanced himself, toppling backwards and taking the kids down with him.

Before he could even begin to process what had just happened, and just what Mabel had meant by distracting him, he had two tiny bodies on top of him, pressing him into the tile. They had matching devilish grins focused on him, and Ford wondered what the hell Stanley had told them, and whether or not he needed to get up and run.

“Grunkle Stan told us about a monster that you might not have in your journals,” Dipper said, leaning forward.

Ford scrunched his face up in confusion. Was this just a distraction, as they said, or was Dipper telling the truth? Just as he opened his mouth to ask for clarification, Mabel leaned forward as well.

“Yeah, yeah! It’s such a cool monster, too! You know what it is?”

Ford shook his head, playing along. “No, what is this monster?” Perhaps if he placated them, he could get back to making breakfast before Stanley came back down and saw his pitiful progress.

Dipper and Mable exchanged an evil glance and grinned down at him. They raised their hands, fingers shaped in claws and wiggling wildly, and Ford felt a spark of recognition run through him. His eyes widened before they even answered.

“The Tickle Monster!” They shouted in unison.

And then, before he could even blink or think to defend himself, he had four tiny hands wiggling into all sorts of sensitive places. Ford tossed his head back against the tile and snickered quietly, trying to keep the worst of his laughter in. He couldn’t let two children best him!

But Mabel’s fingernails were wreaking havoc on the nerves of his ribs and neck, and Dipper’s fingertips digging into his sides and stomach weren’t serving him much better. He forgot how uncoordinated he got when he was tickled, not having been subjected to it since before Stanley got kicked out when they were younger. His hands were flailing everywhere, unable to latch onto either twin and save himself from their playful torture.

“No no no, you’re doing it all wrong,” a voice called out from the entryway.

Ford felt a mix of dread, excitement, and anticipation fill his belly when he saw Stanley standing there. It only grew when he saw the spark of recognition in his eyes as he stalked closer.

“You gotta do it like this,” Stanley told the kids, and unceremoniously stuffed his hands into Ford’s armpits, scribbling away.

Ford howled, curling in on himself as best he could with two almost-teens still sitting on top of him and Stan looming over top of them all. He cackled madly and he could feel the tears building up in his eyes the longer the playful torment went on. It was so embarrassing, so humiliating, so…

Fun.

It felt kind of nice to let loose and laugh like he was, something he hadn’t done in a long time. The fingers driving him insane left him with no chance to overthink things as he usually did. All he could do was laugh and squirm and gasp for air.

The tickling abruptly halted and Ford sucked in a much-needed breath. He was naive to think it was over, however, because Stanley only grabbed his wrists and pinned them above his head before grinning at the kids. A nervous, playful, fluttering feeling filled his stomach, and he shot a look down at the kids.

“Have at it,” Stanley said.

Dipper and Mabel laughed before darting forward, burying their hands into his armpits. Ford was lost to his hysteria once more, only this time it was worse. His hands were pinned, he could even pretend like he was trying to defend himself from their dancing fingers, and he was too weak from laughter to tug his hands back.

Just when Ford was finally reaching his limit, he tilted his head back and made teary eye-contact with Stanley. Stanley gave him a smirk and a wink before releasing his wrists and setting Ford free.

Ford shot up, still laughing, and tackled Dipper and Mabel to the ground, careful to cushion their fall and avoid any injuries.

“Do you know what’s even worse than a Tickle Monster?” He asked, voice hoarse from the laughter his vocal cords were no longer used to.

Dipper and Mabel were giggling and squirming, clearly having picked up on where this was going, but neither made an attempt to escape. They shook their heads.

Ford raised his hands, fingers curled threateningly into claws, just as they had done to him. “A six-fingered Tickle Monster.”

Dipper and Mable squealed as his hands darted forward, the two soon lost to childish shrieks and cackles as he tickled away. The wide grin still hadn’t left Ford’s lips, even as his cheeks and eyes began to dry from his own mirthful tears. He even let out a few more chuckles at particularly silly sounds the kids made.

Maybe he wasn’t such a failure with them, after all.

But there was still one thing missing from their morning full of laughter. Ford turned around, slowing his ticklish assault on the kids, searching out Stanley. He stood at the counter, a new mixing bowl in front of him, making something that looked a lot closer to pancake batter than Ford’s attempt was.

Oh well, can’t win them all.

“Don’t think you’re off the hook,” Ford growled playfully.

Stanley froze, his body tense, and he slowly turned around to face Ford, a nervous smile spreading across his lips. His hands were raised in surrender, and he looked ready to bolt at any moment.

“You were just so sad this morning,” Stanley tried to reason with him, “I thought the kids could help cheer you up.”

Ford raised an eyebrow. “If I remember correctly, you were rather melancholy earlier, as well.”

They stared each other down, trapped in their little stand-off as Dipper and Mabel giggled quietly behind Ford. Then, Stanley tried to bolt, but Ford was much faster, the two of them crashing to the floor in no time. He quickly got Stanley pinned underneath him.

“Any last words?”

Stanley scowled (though Ford could see the amusement dancing in his eyes, so he wasn’t too worried), but Ford never actually gave him the chance to speak. He dug his fingers in, skittering around with no rhyme or reason as he mentally catalogued Stanely’s tickle spots. Eventually, he settled on Stanley’s ribs, the left side, the second rib from the top (that always used to get him screaming), as well as the little patch of skin on the right side on Stanley’s stomach, just a couple inches under his ribcage (that always used to get him begging for mercy). Stanley yelled and burst out into wild laughter, shoving at Ford’s hands but being too weak to stop him.

“You little--” Stanley started to yell through his laughter, but Ford cut him off.

“Ah ah ah, there are children present, Stanley.”

Stanley only cackled louder. Though that could have also been due to the fact that Ford had upped his tickling.

But speak of the devil and he shall appear, for the kids chose that moment to again make themselves known. Dipper attached himself to Ford’s back, shoving his hands into Ford’s armpits and clumsily tickling away. Mabel, on the other hand, launched herself into Stanley’s chest and started scribbling away at his stomach and sides.

Alright, Ford thought. The kids want a tickle fight? I’ll give them a tickle fight. And he dove back into the fray.

Needless to say, breakfast soon became brunch and the Shack was filled with laughter for a long time to come.

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totallysharkycomplete · 3 years ago

Text

Waiting For You Part Four (Ford Pines x Reader) Our Year

Before the twins arrived she helped Stan set up the attic for them. She also made sure there was plenty of food and snacks. Also, she helped make sure the shack was tween proof, and there were no signs of the supernatural or paranormals.

Stan had hired help in the gift shop for the summer, which was new. Besides Soos who had been around for a few years now. He claimed it was because you were both so close to getting Ford back, and the kids would be enough work.

Life wasn’t much different with the twins around, maybe more fun, but not too different. Mabel decided to call her their honorary Grant. The only difference being having to wait until the kids were asleep before she and Stan head down into the basement.

She tried to distance herself at first, allowing time for Stan to bond with his grand niece and nephew. When Stan told her he was going to take the kids fishing she decided to stay home and work. A few days after that there was a loud crash and Soos announced that he had found a random hidden room.

Everything in her started to panic that he had somehow found Ford’s room, but was relieved when she saw it was those creepy wax figures Stan had forgotten about.

“Why are these in here?” Dipper asks.

“They stopped attracting tourists so Stan put them away. Also,” She leans down to Dipper to whisper. “I think they were kinda haunted.” She only half jokes. They had always given her the creeps.

“I thought you didn’t believe in stuff like that.” Dipper quirked an eyebrow.

Stan and her had agreed to play off all the weird stuff in Gravity Falls to try and keep the kids away from it.

“I don’t.” She lies.

---------- When Mabel announces she has been spending time with Gideon she advies her against it. “Mabel, not to be rude, I know he’s only a child, but he’s kind of insane. Also, he’s kind of like your Gunkle Stan's nemesis.”

Mabel ignores her warning. A few days later however she came back to admit she was right.

“Mabel, I know you’re very boy crazy at this age. You’ll quickly learn that if a guy makes you feel uncomfortable or creeps you out you shouldn’t force yourself to be around them.” She offers Mabel a Pitt Cola which she happily accepts.

“He was really nice until he was really creepy.” Mabel sighs.

“Some boys are just like that.” She tells her.

“What about you? You’re so beautiful and nice. Why don’t you have a boyfriend?” Mabel sits up, excited for an answer.

Her thumb comes up to fidget with the back of her ring. “Well, Mable, I…”

“Oh my gosh!” Mabel jumps up. “Is it because you’re in love with Grunkle Stan?”

She can’t help but laugh, causing Mabel to frown. “I’m sorry, Mabel, but no. I love Stan, yes. But I have absolutely no romantic feeling for him.”

“Don’t worry, by the end of this summer I’ll find you a boyfriend for sure!” Mabel doesn't listen as she protests, and scurries off. ---------- For some reason unbeknownst to her Stan decides to throw a party at the shack. When she asks him a reason all he replies with is, “Money!” Which seems about right to her.

She avoids the party for the most part. Taking the opportunity to sneak into the basement to tighten bolts and detangle wires. It's really all she can do at this point until the other journals are found.

When the party is over Stan makes his way to the basement. “You been down here all night?” She nods. “I could use some help cleaning up from the party.” She agrees to help since there is nothing left for her to do.

She starts throwing cups in the trash can and sweeping up. She unconsciously sighs.

“What’s that for?” Stan asks.

“What’s what for?” She replies.

“The sighing, am I too boring for you?” He jokes.

She stops cleaning and looks at him. “What else can we do, Stan? I feel like I’m just sitting around twiddling my thumbs waiting for something to happen. I’ve spent hours in the woods looking for the journals, hours looking around town, in the shack, but I always come back empty handed. I just don’t know what to do next.”

Stan walks over to her and takes the broom from her hands and sets it to the side, then wraps her in a hug. She hugs him back. “All we can do is keep on living our lives. We’ve done all that we can. I’m not saying we should give up or nothing, but right now we just have to live in the present ya’ know?”

She sniffs. “I know. It’s just so hard to, when it feels like we’re so close.” She put her chin on his chest to look at him.

He smiles. “I know what you mean.” He pauses for a second. “But right now, how ‘bout a dance? Didn’t get one all night.” Stan moves to turn on a slow song, before moving back to her and taking her hands.

She laughs but doesn't argue, laying her head against his chest. They slowly sway to the music.

“This year will be our year, promise.” Stan whispers. ---------- She’s sitting on the dinosaur skull talking to Stan when the twins come barling into the room arguing about having separate rooms. She can’t but smile and wonder if Ford and Stan were like this as kids. Right as Stan is explaining there’s not another room there’s a loud crash and Soos announces, yet again, he’s found a secret room.

Everyone makes their way to go see, and to her dismay she sees it’s Ford’s room. She watches as Stan walks in and grabs Ford’s glasses and tucks them into his sleeve while lying about not knowing what the room was.

She’s so lost in thought that she doesn’t even remember experiment 78, and how she had spent the day in Ford’s body before they figured out they could switch back.

She's leaning against the door frame watching as Stan tells the kids he’ll give the room to whoever sucks up to him the most. Even though she’s feeling upset seeing this room for the first time in a year she can’t help but laugh at Stan’s antics.

As the kids are off scrambling to reshackle the roof she sits across from Stan at the table. “Really?”

He smirks. “What? Just a little friendly competition among siblings.”

She lets out a laugh. “Were you and Ford like that?”

Stan looks at her smiling, but frowns a little before pulling a fake smile. “We, uh, we were best friends our whole childhood. As inseparable as kids can get.” He thinks for a second. “Did you ever want to have kids?”

She looks down at the table wistfully. “I did,” she says with a sad kind of smile. “We did,” she corrects herself. “We had talked about having kids once we weren’t so busy with work.

Stan can’t help but feel guilty. Maybe if he had never answered his brother letter her and Ford would be happily married with a family of their own.

“Don’t think like that Stan.” She frowns.

“Like what?” He tries to play dumb.

“I’ve spent almost every moment with you the last thirty years. I can read you like a book, old man.” She smiles at him now and reaches across the table to hold his hand. He grumbles but doesn’t pull away. “You know I love you, Stan. I don’t hold anything that happened against you, I’ve told you before.”

She pulls her hand away as Mabel runs into the room and starts talking to Stan. She gives him a smile before leaving the room.

Later she finds Stan sitting in his arm chair in front of the television. His favorite show is on, but he’s focused on the object in his hands. Ford’s glasses. Silently, she walked to sit on the dinosaur skull beside him and wrap an arm around him. They both look down at the glasses in silence. ---------- At first, she finds Dipper’s Guide to the Unexplained charming. He reminds her a lot of Ford. Charming, until he starts to point the attention to her.

“She’s lived without Grunkle for who knows how long. They aren’t married or romantically involved, yet she wears a wedding ring. Could she actually be the ghost of a lonely widow who died in this house?” Dipper came up with a whole bunch of crazy theories. He followed her around with a camera until she finally had to tell him to stop.

She pulled him aside to talk to him. “Dipper, listen. Your grukle and I are friends, and roommates. We live together because neither of us want to live alone.”

“But your ring.” Dipper begins to ask.

“My ring,” she gives him a sad smile. “Dipper my fiance gave me this ring and he’s… no longer with us.”

Dipper’s face turned white as he began apologizing.

“Dipper it’s alright. I’m sure you’ll find a real mystery in this town if you keep looking.” ---------- A few days later she's reading in her room when Stan calls her and the kids to the living room. “I need you to laugh at this with me!” He motions to the little Gideon commercial on the tv.

Her heart sinks as the commercial shows the Mystery Shack being destroyed by the tent of telepathy.

Dipper asks if they should be worried about that but Stan assures him the only way Gideon could take the shack was if he snuck in and stole the deed. There’s a loud crash and Stan gets up and you follow to find Gideon had actually broken in. Stan ends up chasing him out with a broom but Gideon gives a grave warning about how when he gets the combination to his safe, Stan will never see the Mystery Shack again.

She stops Stan as he locks the safe again. “Is it really safe? Should we move it to the basement?”

He put a hand on her shoulder. “The combination is in my brain, sweetheart. There’s no way he can get it there.”

For a second her mind thinks of Bill, but he’s been gone since Ford disappeared. She decided against mentioning it to him and trusts Stan to know what he’s doing. Unfortunately, she's asleep in her room when Bill invades Stan’s mind and the twins and Soos enter his brain.

While in his brain Mabel opens a door to see Stan slow dancing with their ‘honorary Grant.’ “Are we sure they aren’t in love?” She questions before moving on.

She came into the living room to see everyone cheerful, Dipper had his grunkle in a choke hold, and she smiled. Suddenly there was an explosion knocking everyone backwards. Gideon walked in with the deed in his hands.

Dipper looks confused and says something about Bill. Her heart drops at the thought of the twins having to have had to deal with him.

They flee from the shack and all they can do is watch as a wrecking ball knocks over the sign for the Mystery Shack. ---------- The new living situation was less than ideal. Staying with Soos and his grandmother was only a temporary solution until they got the shack back.

While Gideon held a press conference Stan, the kids, and Soos watched from the front, she tried to sneak in the back. However they were both caught and thrown off the property.

Back at Soos’s house she stood in the kitchen with Stan while he called the twin’s parents. She watched as he blatantly lied to them. He hangs up the phone with a sigh and she walks over and pulls him into a hug.

“What are we going to do, Stan?” She whispers.

“We’ll do what we have to.” ---------- She was right by his side as he explained to the kids that he had to send them home. It broke your heart just as much as his to see how upset they were. She was surprised to hear him say Gideon won before he stormed out, she followed him out the door.

“You didn’t mean all that.” She confronts Stan when she catches up to him. “I know you didn’t. Stan we’re so close.”

“What do you want me to say? What can we even do? We’ve lost the shack, the kids have to go home, and we’ve lost the portal!” He shouts but not loud enough for anyone else to hear.

“We can’t just give up.” She sniffs.

Stan calms himself when he sees she's about to cry, and gives her a hug. ---------- She gives both twins a teary goodbye before boarding the bus. “I love you two. Thank you for making this summer so memorable. I’m sorry it got cut short.” She plants a kiss to each of their heads before they board the bus.

She stands with Stan as they watch their bus drive away.

Back at Soos’s house she scribbles down ideas on how to get the house back, while Stan sits on the couch to wallow in his self pity. He grumbles something about hitting rock bottom and having no friends, no family.

“What am I, chopped liver?” She jokes, biting her pen in thought. He apologizes.

He stares at the Gideon pin in his hand before announcing he knows Gideon's weakness and tells you to hurry up as he runs out the door. ---------- Stan exposes Gideon for the fraud he is. They get the shack back and the twins get to stay. Even better, Stan tells her he’s found journal number two. She can’t stop from crying when he tells her.

Stan checks on the kids while she's checking on the portal. She doesn’t come up all night, until Stan comes down with journal number three.

“Is this real?” She asks in disbelief. “All three? We have all three journals after one day?”

“We have them all.” He confirms and flips them open to the corresponding pages. She watches as Stan examines the pages and presses some buttons, and the portal lights up. “It’s working!” He exclaims. Running towards the portal and she follows.

“Here we go.” ---------- It’s not long until gravity anomalies begin to happen.

“It won’t be long now.” Stan stated.

She smiled wide and nodded. --------- The next day when government vehicles showed up she tried her best to keep her calm. Stan kept his cool and they left.

“I thought this would happen.” She confessed when they’re alone. “The gravity anomalies happened back in the 80’s when we got the portal working but the government was less observant then.”

“Don’t stress it. Soon we'll have Ford back and we won’t have to worry about the government.” Stan grunts.

She tries not to stress but it doesn't really work. She decided to help distract herself by helping Stan set up for the party. They deserved to celebrate getting the shack back. However, she can’t but notice Dipper sneaking off to Stan’s room. She goes to tell Stan right away.

She agrees to keep an eye on the party while Stan goes to check the portal. Everything is going well until the earth starts to shake. It’s not time for this yet, she thinks and checks her watch. Everyone runs off and she makes her way over to stand by Mabel, when Dipper comes running around the corner a hoard of zombies behind him. She orders everyone inside and keeps the zombies away from the kids the best she can without a weapon. They end up trapped in the gift shop and one grabs Dipper. Before she can do anything Stan shows up to save the day. When they are almost safe in the attic Dipper says there’s no way you and his Grunkle Stan can deny the thing that goes on in Gravity Falls anymore.

“Kid, I’ve always known.” Stan confesses. Dipper looks at you and you nod.

“We thought the best way to keep you two safe from it was to deny its existence. We see that was wrong now.” She frowns.

After the whole karaoke ordeal is over Stan has the twins promise not to go looking for problems, Stan lies and promises he has no more hidden secrets. ---------- She stands by Stan as he pours the fuel into the machines.

“Everyday it’s getting stronger.” He comments as his pen, mug, and notebook fly through the portal. She grabs his arm and steps back. Her eyes were wide.

“Haha, yes!” Stan shouts and raises his hand up. A stray metal bar flies up and hits him in the hand.

“This is so dangerous.” She sighs while bandaging his hand.

“I don’t care if it’s dangerous. I don’t care how long it takes. We’re gonna pull this off, and no ones going to get in our way.” He says determined.

She nods, just as determined. ---------- Stan and her work countless late nights. Finally Stan poured the last of the fuel into the machine. “That should be just enough to do the trick.” Just as he says that the timer begins.

The two of them put the final touches on the machine and Stan hits the button. The portal lights up and begins to whir into life.

“Yes! This is it!” His hat began to rise off his head.

She grabs on the nearest desk to keep herself on the ground. In a few seconds gravity returns and she lands back on her feet. “Just eighteen more hours?”

“Eighteen more hours and this will all have been worth it. Stan straps on his watch with a synced up timer. “Finally, everything changes today.”

They share a smile together. ---------- Stan says he’s going to spend the day with the kids, but she refuses to leave the basement. The kids ask where she is and he just says she’s not feeling well so she’s laying down in bed.

She's standing near the portal but at a safe distance. “Just ten more minutes.” She fidgets with her ring. While staring at the portal she doesn’t notice Soos and the kids. They don’t notice her right away either.

She checks her watch. “Two more minutes. Where the hell is Stan?” Looking around she looks back in the control room to see the kids and Soos. “What the hell?”

They walk into the portal room and gasp. “Kids, Soos, you can’t be here. You need to leave now.”

“There! Dipper yells and runs to the override keys.” Before she can run over and stop them, they turn them.

She moves to stand in front of the emergency off switch. “Stop! You don’t understand!” Soos grabs her and holds her to the side. She tries to wiggle away but can’t get out of his grasp. “Stop! Please!” She cries as Dipper almost hits the button.

Stan burts into the room and stops him before he does think. Dipper begins to argue with Stan when gravity fails.

They’re all lifted into the air. She's holding onto the timer as Mabel makes her way to the kill switch. She is frozen in fear, but Stan launches himself forward and convinces Mabel to trust him. There’s a blinding light and a figure steps out of the portal.

“The author of the journals. My brother!”

#waiting for you part four #ford pines x reader #standford pines x reader #gravity falls #reader insert

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thatabitcryptic · 4 years ago

Text

Have the first chapter of the ficlet for the timestuck au :))

It’s about 1300 words

For context: Ford and Mabel have just convinced Fiddleford to help fix the time tape to get Mabel home. (This is set after fidds quit the project, Ford stumbled across Mabel on his way back from the diner- so everyone’s a bit of a mess but dad instincts kick in here yknow??)

———

Although the couch was much warmer in comparison to the frigidness of the basement, Mabel couldn’t help the cold pit that formed in her stomach. Things were starting to go in the right direction for getting back to her time but.. were they?

Ford and Mcgucket had been practically avoiding each other like the plague. Anytime either of them needed something from the other it was always Mabel who had to speak for them. Sure it made sense they were upset with each other but how could they possibly get her home if they didn’t even look at one another? Grunkle Ford refused to stop working in the basement so he could keep watch over the portal and Mcgucket’s terms of never having to enter it again.. how was she going to get them in the same room? They hated each other.

But then when she brought up the time tape why had Ford immediately jumped to needing Mcgucket’s help?? Ford was a smart guy, and not that she didn’t like the extra company but if her Grunkle had been so angry at his old friend why ask him?

And in the future when they had watched Mcgucket’s memories he didn’t sound mad at Ford, just that he had wanted to forget. He didn’t seem like the kind of guy to hold grudges either. Well, future him at least.

The strange air between them wasn’t the only thing that was throwing her off though. The whole house was wrong. It didn’t have any semblance of a home; more of a very disorganised library.

The mystery shack had never been the tidiest place but even when she and Dipper had first arrived Grunkle Stan had the place in organised chaos. Everything had a place and each place made sense at least. Here it was sporadic with no order like Ford had stopped during the middle of something and started a new task leaving previous items cluttered amidst coffee cups and stacks of books.

It was wrong in so many ways and there were so many things she missed from home. Even the little things. The murmuring of tourists in the gift shop, the mouldy spots on the roof, the spur of a tool from wherever Soos was fixing something in the shack, the weird gross smell of Grunkle Stan, Dippers late night reading, Pacifica's sweet perfume, Waddles’ hooves clicking along the floor-

Tears welled in her eyes as she stared down at her blanket. What if she never saw them again? What if Grunkle Ford and Mcgucket were never able to get her back home? Would she have to grow up here? What if she never saw waddles again? His swishy little face, his curly tail that bounced when the toddled behind her-

And Dipper? Would the next time she saw him be when they were born?? Thirty years from now?

Mabel’s head spun; all this time travel made her nauseous. Her chest ached and her hands were hot from wringing them on the scratchy fabric. She couldn’t think straight. It was just the swirling thoughts of her fate in solitude. All she could hear was her rhythmic heartbeat pumping another reason to miss her time into the front of her mind.

Her sweater was too tight, her headband too sharp, her cheeks were itchy from the waves of drying and flowing tears-

“-lright there sweet pea?”

A soft southern drawl from her side snapped her back. Mcgucket.

She didn’t hesitate to launch herself towards the familiar tone and bury her face in his green jacket. It smelt like a strange mix of tobacco, grease and molasses but that was closer to home than the stale dusty air of her surroundings.

“Shh shh shhh shh, it’s okay sugar plum.” He ran a hand through her hair and softly untangled any knots. “Ya’ wanna tell me what’s the matter?”

Mabel’s mouth immediately burst open with bubbling incomprehensible sobs.

“I wanma go h-homemm, Dippmffft, grunkmplmh stamm,” she took a breath and looked up at him with blurred eyes, “m-my pett pig waddles and h-his face.” And then she pressed herself back into his side. Each breath she took shook her body but it was stifled by Fiddleford hugging her closer.

“Hmmmm, a pet pig huh?” He paused and tapped his fingers on her back in contemplation.

“Did future me ever tell ya’ tha’ I grew up on a hog farm?”

Mabel stopped for a moment to look up at him with a trembling lip. “N-no, I-I don’t think s-so?”

Mcgucket drew back with a faux sound of horror. “Well, I never! I can’t ‘lieve this feller’! Ya’ hav’ a pig and ‘e didn’t even offer some advice!”

Mabel smiled and rubbed her nose on her sleeve.

“Naw’ darlin’ here.” Fiddleford reached into his pocket and pulled out a handkerchief for her.

“T-thank you.”

“It’s tha’ least I could do after withholdin’ my advice in the future, or is it before..” He chuckled and shifted to rest his chin on top of Mabel’s head. “I’ll have to remember to tell ya ‘bout it”

Mabel stiffened and wiped her eyes again but didn’t comment.

Maybe it was best not to ask her...

“Now waddles?” he hummed. “I gotta say Mabel that’s a mighty fine name for’ a pig I reckon. The little fellers do tend ta’ waddle about.”

“Y-yeah.” Her voice quivered in reply and she absentmindedly latched onto the sides of his jacket and pulled them in over herself. “He- I miss him.”

Fiddleford could feel Mabel beginning to shake again and he wracked his brain for something else to talk about. He may not have known her for very long but it was heart breaking for such a bubbly kid to be so disquieted.

“How does he fancy the banjo?”

“The banjo?” She turned and lifted her head to look up at him with big eyes and Mcgucket’s heart melted. Mabel may as well have been Stanford’s kid in his eyes, each little mannerism was instantly recognisable as one as Ford’s.

“Uh huh, piglets on the farm used’ ta’ love it! ‘Td help ‘em drift off ta’ sleep in a big stack.”

He grinned at Mabel’s gasp and the way her eyes lit up when she spun around to look at him.

“In a piggy pile?” she started to bounce with enthusiasm.

“In one ‘o the biggest piles ‘o piglets a‘round!” He poked her nose eliciting a giggle.

“Old ma- I mean Mcgucket can you pretty please teach me to play? I-I’ll uhh umm I’ll draw one of my famous catacatures for you!!”

Mabel’s energy was contagious but Fiddleford couldn’t help his knee from bouncing slightly as he sheepishly looked past her to the door.

“Oh uh not that’ I don’t want one of yer drawins’ girlie but I’m not uhh too sure that’s such a good idea, Stanford’s mighty busy at work an’...”

He looked down to see Mabel’s eyes were full of stars as she was practically buzzing with excitement that he hadn’t seen since he met her. Fidds couldn’t help but feel delight at the sight. Just like Stanford.

“Hehaha ‘lright but if we hear Ford comin’ up we ‘ave to hide my banjo ‘else I’ll never see it ‘tagain.”

“Ahh thank you thank you thank you!!” Mabel wrapped him in a tight hug and it was as though all her upset had been transferred into her keenness for a banjo lesson.

Fiddleford stood, and helped Mabel out of her cocoon of blankets before fixing his glasses.

“Ahaha okay okay hush now aha we’ve gotta’ be a bit more quiet kidlet.”

His smile faltered as he saw his hand rising to grip his hair, Mabel must have noticed too because she quickly held onto it and subtlety swung it back and forth as they went to collect the instrument.

#this is just fidds and Mabel fluff because I need moreeeee #writing fidds as a dad was so much fun????#so there will be more #Cryptic wrote this when they were over tired: the first instalment #also who let me write fidds’ dialogue like this?? IM SO SORRY #uhhh I did read over this a few times but idk how good my editing skills are so...#please forgive me if it is badddd #timestuck au #gravity falls #stanford pines #fiddleford mcgucket #mabel pines #fiddauthor #fic stuff #:D

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isaacthedruid · 4 years ago

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Please allow me to tell you about one of my favourite cartoons through this informal essay I did for school a couple of months back.

Gravity Falls and How it Did The Unimaginable

**SPOILERS... KINDA**

The 2010s saw the creation of some of the most iconic animated tv shows ever made, the likes of Adventure Time (2010), Steven Universe (2013), Over the Garden Wall (2014) and The Legend of Korra (2012). To explain why this era’s shows are so admirable is honestly rather difficult. Yet, there are many factors that can be taken into consideration when looking for an answer.

The past decade was very successful in perfecting their craft and utilizing the animated format to their favour, creating some of the wackiest and fascinating cartoons ever made. With the advancements made in both 2D and 3D animation for film, this bled into the world of TV as well.

To mention that 2010s cartoons have stunning visuals would be an understatement. Everything about the animation was beautiful; the strong colour palettes, the clean and imaginative character designs, the colourful and immersive backgrounds and especially the mesmerizing worlds that can be found within episodes that are half an hour.

This era’s cartoons also led to a massive shift in storytelling, writing longer-running stories that spread out across seasons while also swapping out episodic adventures for serialization. This heavily aided in the popularization of these shows, due to the rise of internet fandoms and dropping the taboo that cartoons were only for kids. Many shows acknowledged their older viewers by leaving clues and even puzzles to be solved by the theorists who have a large appearance on social media platforms like Reddit, Twitter and Tumblr. As the shows progressed, their fandoms created many theories for what they believed might happen within their favourite series. The top three shows from this era all utilized these changes, being at the forefront of the shift and helping guide the creative vision of 2010s cartoons.

Often regarded as many people’s favourite cartoon, Gravity Falls presented one of the best mysteries of the decade with two seasons and only 40 episodes. Inspired by Twin Peaks and The X-Files, it’s considered as the kids’ version of these two iconic shows as this cartoon acts as many people’s first introduction to horror through bright colours and fun characters.

This series follows the adventures of Dipper and Mabel Pines, twins, who are sent to spend their summer with their great-uncle or Grunkle Stan in Gravity Falls, Oregon. This town is full of oddities like supernatural creatures, insane and eccentric inhabitants, and many puzzles. The Pines twins must adjust to the weirdness while uncovering the mysteries and protecting their new town.

While living in Gravity Falls, the twins are forced to work in the Mystery Shack, a tourist trap created by their Grunkle Stan that overcharges unlucky tourists, teaching about fake monsters despite there being real creatures all over town. On his first day in Oregon, Dipper accidentally came across a mysterious journal written by an unknown author that explains all the oddities to be found in this strange town. This book acts like an encyclopedic of the Weird for Dipper, an inquisitive 12-year-old kid who seeks answers.

Dipper is an extremely intelligent kid, his brain being far more developed than his body. He’s rather awkward and self-conscious as he often stumbles over his words or gets embarrassed trying to talk to girls. Despite this, the boy is an adventurer at heart who just wants to grow up and skip his upcoming teenage years.

While Mabel is quite the opposite in many ways, she is loud and has an in-your-face personality. Mabel is bouncy and fun, she is so excited to start high school. She is easily excitable and for the larger part of the series, she is in her boy-crazy phase. Mabel is a girly-girl as she likes all things; glitter, unicorns, rainbows, partying and crafting. Yet, she doesn’t often compare well with many of the other girls in town, they see her as weird and “too much”.

(In all fairness through, it is not too kind to either of the characters as their personalities are more complex than just awkward nerd and artsy girl-girly.)

Dipper and Mabel’s personalities are very different but somehow, they—along with their Gravity Falls family—manage to solve mysteries and save the town, multiple times.

Gravity Falls is an honestly genius series that completely changed the way cartoons were made. Originally when writing a series, you’d create a base of your story; characters, the universe and a basic plot. Yet, when creator, Alex Hirsch (who was in his early/mid-20)s and his small team first began constructing their show, they planned out everything they could possibly think of for the first season. Additionally, outlining some answers for their biggest mysteries that would be answered at the end of the series.

Despite being rated TV-Y7, this series really pushed the boundaries of kids’ television. From the teeth being ripped out of a deer’s mouth by a demon, rearranging the functions of every hole on a man’s face to an aggressive pop-rock sock puppet show that ended in a dramatic slow-motion scene of the puppets burning. Gravity Falls wasn’t afraid to get a little weird or creepy. Or create some genuine nightmare fuel.

From the beginning, Gravity Falls had built a mystery into its series, hiding secrets and clues all throughout the show. Most notably were the backwards-recorded message and cryptograms, using roughly nine different kinds, even creating two of their own.

The inclusion of cyphers and mysteries for fans to solve is possibly the reason why this series was so successful. As one of the first shows to do something like this, Gravity Falls used social media and internet fandoms to its advantage.

As mentioned earlier, cartoon fans have quite a presence on social media platforms like Twitter and Tumblr. They create theories and share fun ideas about their favourite shows. Viewers of Adventure Time, Gravity Falls and Steven Universe were all included in their share of theory fun.

Sometimes, fan theories end up being correct but when you’re Gravity Falls creator, Alex Hirsch, you don’t just watch from the sidelines as your viewers figure out the biggest mystery of your show. No, you create a hoax to get your viewers off your trail and that is what he did. Around 2013, only halfway through the first season of the show, viewers had started to follow the clues, theorizing who was the author is Dipper’s mysterious journal.

Unfortunately for the Gravity Falls production crew, the viewers were right— for the sake of readers who have never seen the show, I will not mention who the author was as it would be the biggest spoiler.

In 2013, a supposed leaked image of a tv showing a younger version of the show’s crazy old man character, Old Man McGucket, writing in the infamous journal was uploaded anonymously (by Alex Hirsch) to 4Chan.

Despite the image only being on up for a few hours, it spread like wildfire. Much to the team’s success, theorists stopped searching for the answer to “who is the author” and just accepted the image of McGucket as the truth.

To further push the fake-out, three words were posted to Alex’s Twitter, “fuming right now.”

The tweet was deleted a few minutes later and fans genuinely believed that someone from the Gravity Falls team had leaked the most important part of the story.

While doing research, I came across a Reddit post from April 10th, 2013, the day after ‘leak,’ Alex’s tweet was uploaded. In this post, user, TheoDW uploaded an image of Alex’s tweet with the caption, “It seems that Hirsch got mad at last night’s leak. He already deleted this tweet.”

Seeing the reactions of these Redditors in 2013 is kind of weird and crazy to look at. “He has every right to be upset. Someone internally released a plot revealing screen shot of series breaking spoiler information,” a deleted Reddit account commented.

“This is Alex Hirsch’s biggest success by far, he spent a huge amount of time carefully planning out the series, and then in a moment someone releases a major spoiler. It would make anyone upset,” the user, Time_Loop commented.

“Seriously, this is a nightmare for a storyteller, and shows a breach of trust. I feel so bad for him–honestly, I hope whoever did the leak gets caught and appropriate action is taken. You don’t f–k with someone’s story like this. It’s unprofessional.” the user, lonelybeloved angrily commented.

In 2014, this ‘leak’ was finally disproven when viewers were given an episode on McGucket’s backstory and an amazing tweet from Alex Hirsch.

Alex had post an image of himself playfully pointing at a monitor with the supposed leaked picture with the caption, “1) Make hoax 2) Upload to 4Chan 3) Post angry tweet about "leak" 4) Delete tweet 5) Let internet do rest”

It is so interesting to look at these comments know that all of this was orchestrated by Alex.

I wish I had been old enough at the time to follow theories and fandom stuff like I do now with current cartoons but really looking at this from an outside perspective, this was insane!

The real author wasn’t revealed until 2015 and when viewers first got the answer to this biggest show on their screens, they must have freaked out!

Following the finale in 2016, a single frame of a stone version of Bill Cipher, the show’s villain, flashed in after the credits had finished.

Alex Hirsch and his team actually created a real-life statue of their villain for their viewers to find and on July 20th, 2016, the Cipher Hunt began.

By following clues, the Hunters found themselves all over the world; Russia, Japan and then travelling throughout the United States for the final 12 clues. When the hunt took them to Los Angeles, actor, Jason Ritter (voice of Dipper Pines, also a massive fan of the series) and Alex Hirsch’s twin sister, Ariel Hirsch (the inspiration for Mabel) joined in the fun helping the search.

Finally, the hunt ended on August 2nd when someone tweeted out an image of the found statue in Oregon, the same state in which the fictional town of Gravity Falls exists. The Cipher Hunt had ended but finding the statue wasn’t Alex’s goal for the scavenger hunt, it was about the journey and bringing together the viewers, more than having them actually find the statue.

Creating its own hoax, an international scavenger hunt and quite a bit of nightmare fuel, Gravity Falls was a show truly unlike any other.

The 2010s saw some of the strongest cartoons ever made, Adventure Time, Gravity Falls and Steven Universe acting as the leaders for multiple different changes in the medium; storytelling, worldbuilding, interaction with viewers, utilizing social media, representation and further pushing music into the cartoon world. From what was created this past decade and what has already been released in 2020, I’m so excited to see what comes next.

I have another one of these which is on Steven Universe’s representation and music if you would like to see that too!!

#isaac rambles #long post #gravity falls #cartoons #cartoon review #dipper pines #alex hirsch #OH MY GOD I LOVE ALEX HIRSCH'S BRAIN!!!#disney #disney channel #disney cartoons

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katsrnerstories · 4 years ago

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BillDip SlowBurn FanFic Chap. 1

Bill had destroyed Dipper's mind.

It has been a few years since weirdmageddon. Since Dipper and Mabel defeated demons from hellish planes of existence and saved the world and their friends from soul and mind crushing madness.

Dippers a freshman in college now. It was a moment that he had wished for for years. Highschool had been…

Well it wasn't the worst it could have been. Dipper hit a major glow up around the beginning of junior year (with Mabel's help of course) and life was a little easier. He was asked out on dates, went to a few parties here and there that people dragged him to, had some typical highschool fun in the city...

Until around that same time he started getting replies from colleges his senior year, he started to see Bill again. Every once in a while his mind would wander back to that summer, but it was always the good things or nightmares of the horrors they saw.

It started with just a little glimpse here and there. An eye in the back corner of his periphery, some yellow glimpse in a dark room.

A ghostly hand on his shoulder.

But these things were nothing to the first time Dipper realized something was wrong.

Dipper saw Bill in his dreams. And those dreams were beyond nightmares.

He had had nightmares before. Nightmares of weirdmageddon were common for both dipper and Mabel. But these… these were real; as much as a dream could be.

Because of Gravity Falls, Dipper really wasn't afraid of a lot of things that would have scared him. The unknown was comforting to him. Maybe because it wasn't too unknown to him and Mabel.

But bill. During those nightmares, brought everything he feared to the frontlines.

It had been a while since Mabel and him shared a room, so Mabel really didn't know about the fear Dipper experienced those nights.

She was more focused on getting to LA.

She wants to be a criminal psychoanalyst. To look at the minds of people and figure how they tick. Criminals especially.

Dipper could swear that Bill had done something to her to make her go down such a dark career path, but he couldn't say anything; he neither had a psychology degree nor was untouched by Bill himself.

Who really knows, it could have been anything else that happened to her in those hellish four years of highschool.

She had moved away quickly after highschool ended to learn in LA. Of course they facetime and text all the time, but the separation was still felt by both of them.

Everyone missed her presence. Her positivity, her unique personality.

That had transformed into something much darker come junior and senior year. She found out after a few failed boyfriends that she was not only Asexual, but that guys and even girls, can’t seem to give that part of a relationship up. Some even found it offensive that she felt that way.

Dipper went back to oregon. Of course he was in the city, but on weekends he would visit the Mystery Shack and Gravity Falls.

Soos was happy to give him one of the rooms in the basement. Sometimes even Grunkle Stan or Grunkle Ford would visit.

They decided shortly after Dipper and Mabel left that they would travel. Of course Ford's labs still sit under the mystery shack, but when Mabel and Dipper visited Soos the summer of their junior year Ford gave them full control of the labs (as long as Dipper kept everyone safe. Which he did too much annoyance of Mabel)

Soos and his wife at that time had just had a little baby boy, and now have a comfortable four kids, two boys and two girls (three of them were triplets) and run the shack not to much better than Stan did, with the same soul in the campy attractions and overpriced merchandise.

Wendy is in her senior year at a community college in Oregon city, right around the same place Dipper decided to go to school. They hang out pretty regularly, just around weekly.

Robby left gravity falls as soon as he got his GED. Went for New York, looking for a punk career. He sends Wendy emails every once in a while about his music and where he's at.

Shockingly, Pacifica stayed in Oregon, going to the same college Dipper goes to. They see each other, and after leaving her family, she found a lot out about herself and became a much better person.

She found she loved a good smoke and art. Apparently, something she hid from the world was that she loved art. She was probably one of the best artists Dipper had seen. After she left the hell hole of her family, she became really chill. Calm. even nice.

Her and Dipper have coffee pretty much every day. She was one of the only people who also knew what he had gone through.

And she was the only person who noticed as Dipper got worse and worse for wear.

Bill had been particularly evil the past few weeks, taking much more joy in Dippers struggle. Long ago Dipper had just sort of given up on screaming for Bill to stop. But he always refused to make a deal with him to stop the fear. Not again.

“Another nightmare again?” Pacifica asks, as Dipper requests 5 shots of caffeine in his already bitter caffeinated black coffee.

“Yeah. it's getting harder and harder to say no every night. And honestly the empty dorm isn't helping.”

“Why don't you just move in with me? I've got an extra room that's got your name written on the door if you want it.”

Dipper almost accepted, but decided against it. It was kind of weird, no matter how good of friends they were, to live with the ex that made you realized you were gay.

It wasn't her fault, it was just…

He liked a different kind of ass, as Mabel had said when he came out.

No, the daily overpriced coffee meetup was enough.

“Have you talked about it to Ford? Hes got to know something about it if he went through the same thing?”

“I don't want to bother them with it. They thought they got rid of Bill that summer, we all did. Bills my problem now.”

Pacifica gives him a knowing look. She knew that he was breaking, but couldn't figure out how to help him.

“Hows journalism?” Pacifica takes her coffee as she changes the subject.

“As boring as it ever is. Graphic design?”

“As confusing as ever.” Dipper takes a big sip from his steaming coffee. It's a briskly cold morning, enough he brought out his knit set Mabel had made for him on their 18th birthday. He had no shame in wearing it, and it in fact felt comforting today, to know that she was still with him in heart at least.

She never grew out of her sweater thing. She still makes sweaters, using it to get her to the next rent payment sometimes. Everyone can count on a big box with sweaters from her every Christmas here in Oregon.

With their coffees in hand, Dipper and Mabel head off to campus. And once they made it there they said their goodbyes with a hug and went their separate ways to start the day.

Dipper wanders into the lecture hall for his advanced maths class. People filter in as he types away on his computer.

The students around him wanted to be scientists, economists, etc. everyone found it weird that a creative writing major was not only taking advanced maths, this early in the morning, but was killing it. His grades spoke for themselves.

The class starts and Dipper still types away on his computer. He had been bored the night before as he was staving off sleeping and had read a chapter ahead in their textbook. He taught himself the three hour lesson that day in an hour.

It was no doubt that Dipper took after his great uncle Stanford. Grunkle Ford told him at one point that Dipper reminded him of a young Dr. Fiddleford. Dipper didn't really like being compared to the scientist that started a whole cult under Gravity Falls before going batshit crazy himself for a very long time.

He only hoped that he wouldn't end up like him. He didn't want to be some crazy man who roams the town.

Dipper had a story that he needed to finish for his next class. He had started to wear away the stories of Gravity Falls with his creative writing classes that he now had to actually think about what story to write. Mabel helped him out with the premise of the story last night. So he spent that class writing a simple flash fiction of one roaming the backrooms. (an urban legend Mabel had read about in an article somewhere.)

He found comfort in knowing that one thing did not exist to him. That one thing did not sit in the pits of Gravity Falls waiting for Dipper or one of them to unearth it.

The story reminded Dipper of falling through the endless pit just outside the Mystery Shack. A hole where they reminisced on days of the summer as they spent the day, or who knows how long, falling. they were all lucky that it was not, truly, endless.

And quickly the story was finished and the class closed early.

Dipper went for an early lunch. He scrolls through his phone, seeing Mabels three new instagram posts and all the other people she introduced him to.

After Mabel found out Dipper was gay, she went on a mission to hook him up with some LA guy. Oregons not terrible with their acceptance, but it's not something to be very open about. Plus Dipper wasn't the kind to walk pride without someone like Mabel hyping the both of them up. Because god knows that she needs just as much hyping up with who she is as Dipper.

When he walks into his empty apartment, anxiety wells up in Dippers chest. Quickly he turns on the TV, letting it run as white noise as he makes his lunch. The apartment had been empty since his recent relationship ended. Dipper is glad it ended, as the abuse just got too much; yet it was bad for Dipper to be left alone with his thoughts. Especially in an apartment that seemed to hold so much sadness and bad memories.

Mabel, after helping Dippers style, had made him a whole cookbook for him. It had all different kinds of foods, but the main dishes all were healthy. She had gone on a fitness rampage her sophomore year and had never truly grown out of it. It was from a bad place, but she turned it to a positive. As she always does.

She had told him that it was the first thing other than sleep to keep alive longer. She had made him promise that he would try to stay alive.

At this point it was the only thing keeping Dipper alive.

Bill had taxed his mind so much it was rare to find him not paranoid. Bill made Dippers anxiety beyond chronic, and the lack of sleep did not help his depression.

That had developed after Pacifica. It wasn't because of the break up, more at the fact that she had helped him so much.

She had accepted him being gay. She had helped him gain friends during their relationship, and she even helped him when money wasn't the best.

All this caused his anxiety to get to his head.

What if they think I’m evil for breaking it off with her? What if she'll never want to see me again? What if, what if, what if…

His depression had just gotten worse after the breakup and dealing with being alone again. It was the reason Dipper stayed with someone like that for so long.

All of the depression and anxiety ended up crashing down at the same time Bill Cypher ended up crashing into the picture.

At that point Bill only came to terrorise Dipper a few nights a month. It was easier to deal with. Now it's every night.

Dipper finishes making his food, sitting down in front of the TV to watch a show on Netflix.

He had been getting through the true crime shows. He swore that eventually he'd eventually either run a show like it with Mabel or be one of the cold cases lost to the world.

Yet within only a few minutes Dipper not only found himself asleep, but stuck in the mindscape.

“Been trying to avoid me, Pine Tree?”

Dipper no longer was shocked by Bill's voice. In fact the more and more he heard his voice, the more and more it began to sound almost human.

#billdip #gravity falls #whump writing #slow burn #fanfiction #writers #fandom #fanfic #bill x dipper #dipper pines #bill cipher #mabel pines #gravity falls pacifica #adult dipper pines #powerless bill cipher

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nataliedanovelist · 4 years ago

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My 2020 Tumblr Top 10

1). 471 notes - Oct 6 2020

I would fucking die for this owl.

2). 303 notes - Feb 9 2020

GF - Dr. Mystery (A gift I did for the amazing @siro-cyll.)

Ever since the Pines family had returned to Gravity Falls for the summer, Soos and Stan shared the role of Mr. Mystery. It was primarily Soos’ responsibility so that Stan could sit in his boxers for as long as he wanted, but every so often - to give the old man something to do or so Soos could work on a project or a repair - it was like the good ole days with the original My. Mystery scamming tourists and a humble handyman making the shack stand strong.

Unfortunately, Soos caught a bad case of the summer flu, and so to try to keep two old men and two young teenagers from getting sick, he quarantined himself in his room and Stan had to fill in the My. Mystery role. It felt good to be back in his old ways for a bit, amazing gullible tourists with made-up attractions; he had been doing this for thirty years, he could do it for a week, right?

3). 253 notes - Feb 5 2020

GF - Tiger Stripes (Another gift for @siro-cyll!)

With the soft, warm steam coming from his mug, the pleasant early-morning sun baking his naked chest, and the cool breeze awakening his senses gradually, it would be an understatement to say that Ford was comfortable.

The breeze ruffled his fluffy charcoal-gray hair playfully before disappearing, leaving behind a still Summer’s air. While it is true that he became cold easily, one of the reasons why he wore turtleneck sweaters all year-round, the star his planet revolved around warned his exposed skin pleasantly and Ford felt no anxiety nor unpleasant chill as he stood on the porch, watching the day begin.

4). 240 notes - Sep 8 2020

1 Minute and 4 Seconds of Pain (This was both fun and painful to put together. Credit to everyone in the video who participated.)

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5). 197 notes - Feb 14 2020

GF - Sweatertown (... I may or may not have gone overboard back in Feb. Sorry, @siro-cyll. ^^; )

It was raining that day. Maybe that was why it took Ford awhile to decide that it wasn’t a figment of his imagination he was hearing, or another natural sound the woods would make in this weather. No, no it was definitely crying.

6). 180 notes - Oct 9 2020

GF - Can’t Stand It (Oh gosh, a gift for @ho-ne-ye that she AND @sealbatross were kind enough to draw for. Thank you so so much guys!)

Stan was having a bad day. Well, a bad week. Scratch that, a bad month.

It was March, a beautiful time out in the Arctic. For several weeks the Stan twins hardly ever saw the sun or didn’t see it at all. Closer to the holidays they traveled down south to Northern Europe, exploring the United Kingdom and the Northern Islands in order to enjoy daylight, but now that Summer was approaching and Spring was on their side, the Stan O’ War II was moving up to sail above Canada, breaking melting ice and meeting new creatures.

7). 163 notes - Mar 18 2020

GF - Boxing (... How does the saying go? What goes around comes around? Do something nice and the world will do something nice in return. Huh. I’m noticing a pattern with all of my top 10s... Anywho! I did this one for @artsymeeshee!)

It all started back when the Pines family first arrived back at the Mystery Shack. Mabel was up in the storage room (It was much fuller than wise, but the attic was used as a bedroom at the moment.) and had dragged Dipper along with her to help find some old photographs. With only two weeks to work on her special birthday present for her grunkles, she needed all the help she could get in making them the perfect gift: a new scrapbook full of old photos of Glass Shard Beach and pictures Mabel had saved on her phone and was going to print of the old sailors out at sea.

8). 136 notes - Feb 10 2020

GF - Arm Wrestling (ANOTHER gift for @siro-cyll! Seriously, they’re a gem for tolerating me. XD )

Fiddleford cleared his throat, a feeble attempt to get his colleague’s attention, but to no avail. He sighed and sat cross-legged on the grass, his backpack full of gear by his side. He propped up his head by his chin and on his fist, his elbow on one knee, and he watched half-bored, half-amused, as his best friend arm-wrestled a unicorn.

And no, the author did not mean to put down “harmed, wrestled and mourn”, nor did the composure of this tale mean “alarmed and sworn in”. No, the anomaly-researcher was truly arm-wrestling a unicorn, and had been at it for a few hours now.

9). 127 notes - Oct 27 2020

GF - Amalia (OH MY! @artsymeeshee had blessed us so I had decided to give her something in return.)

The snow reflected the tiny amount of sunlight the capital of Iceland received. Spring was coming, though still a ways off, but the large island still welcomed the sun that was starting to rise earlier every day and stay longer as February was coming to a close.

10). 123 notes - Jul 26 2020

GF - Counting Stars (A gift for the wonderful @sealbatross!)

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Original comic belongs to @sealbatross! GUYS, they’re so talented, I luv ‘em! GO SHOW ‘EM SOME LOVE!!! Sorry it’s a little choppy, but the original comic just flows SO WELL! I highly recommend checking the original post.

#tumblrtop10 #do what did we learn kids?#be nice to people!#also people won't read your fics without visual aid...#just kidding!#but seriously #maybe 2020 wasn't all bad...

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artist-in-an-ugly-sweater · 4 years ago

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So- people seem to be curious about what happened prior to the drawing I made of gar grunkle Stan and sphynx Ford, thus I decided to try some writing? Just a short to explain what is going on. If it gets too long and boring for anyone who's curious about the story to that picture can simply scroll down all the way. I'll put a summary there so I don't spoil anything to someone who'd like to read through this.

Now, without any further ado, let us begin!

Stone cold treatment

a "short" monsterfalls story

Stone. One of the thing a living creature would never like to be. Alive, but not really, trapped underneath a shell of stone. Able to hear, able to feel everything, yet unable to do anything about what you heard or felt. That was how he'd been feeling ever since the first time he turned to stone. It was natural for a gargoyle like himself, thus one would think he is be able to control it, right? But he was not. Ever since he turned into a gargoyle, Stanley Pines simply couldn't control this new ability of his; the ability of turning to stone. The first time it happened, it was a brand new, terrifying experience, and it was honestly no different each time it happened without his control. This one time, however, it was a bazillion times worse.

His nephew Dipper and worker Wendy were hanging out in the back yard of the Shack when it happened. He was sitting there on the porch by his niece, Mabel, who was basking in her small pool, cheering for her brother and Wendy. The two of them had been having a hard time adjusting to their new forms, too, but honestly, who hadn't? Dipper had trouble walking, thus he required quite the bit of practice. It took him a while to even make it to the back yard. Luckily, he had his family and friends to help him out once he quit his "I can do it on my own" phase of his walks. That was partially why Wendy was there. She was helping him walk, watching over the cervitaur and his attempts to get a hang of walking on fours. It was for her own benefit, too. Wendy was a werewolf and ever since her transformation had trouble handling herself when it came to wildlife. She'd been struggling with pouncing and attacking things that seemed huntable, making it especially hard to keep it cool around Dipper who was half deer.

She honestly wanted to stop seeing Dipper and giving up her job at the Shack just to keep him safe. She would've done it if it wasn't for Grunkle Stan, who encouraged her and convinced her to try and get a hold of her new wild tendencies. He promised to provide supervision over the two in case something went wrong, but fortunately, everything had been going smoothly. Soon enough, Dipper's slow trots turned into faster paces back and forth with Wendy by his side. “You're doing great, deer brother!” Mabel cheered, giggling over her own joke. Wendy gave a light laugh whilst Dipper's cheeks flushed a tint of red as he yelled back: “Not funny when you say it all the time, Mabel!” “Come 'ere you dork! ” Wendy laughed as she ruffled the cervitaur's hair, receiving quite the nervous laugh in response from the now bright red boy. Stan gave a light chuckle himself. Everyone was having fun. There was nothing to worry about, he thought. For once after this huge change in his and everyone's lives, Stan felt at peace. He felt like he could rest without things turning against him. Close his eyes and...relax. And so he did. Stan let his eyes close, leaning back into the backrest of the scruffy couch on the porch gently, minding his wings as he didn't lean in completely.

The next thing he knew, however, he heard a yell. His niece was yelling for help. “Grunkle Stan!! Grunkle Stan, do something!!” she cried, but to no avail. Her great uncle Stan gave no response, simply resting upon the cushions of the couch without a single twitch despite what was going on. Despite the loud snarling, growling and yelling of both his niece and nephew who begged for help. It was happening again. His eyes wouldn't open, his arms and legs wouldn't listen, but he could hear it. He could hear it all. The terror in Dipper's voice as he yelled “Wendy stop! P-please!!”; the dismay in Mabel's voice as she begged for her grunkle to do something- anything! Mabel herself couldn't do much. She was a mermaid and she couldn't leave her pool just like that. It were times like these that she wished she'd turned into something alike to Dipper, with an extra pair of legs instead of none. Stan began to panic. He couldn't see, say or do anything despite how much he tried to. The stony shell he'd formed once he relaxed his body held him prisoner, making him listen helplessly as his nephew was chased about, getting hurt- or worse. It was alike to a nightmare in which you couldn't do anything to save the day, only watch as your loved ones were taken away. Or in Stan's case, listen.

It wasn't till he heard the door fly open by his side and his niece cry out his brother's name that a brief wave of relief washed over him. “Grunkle Ford!!” Mabel called as her great uncle Ford rushed out of the house, ready to tackle whatever danger his grandniece and nephew stood against. A roar from the Sphinx, cries and whining followed and then – silence. Everything went silent. Was it over? Was everyone alright?

Stan felt his panic ease up along with the stone keeping him in place. Hearing it crackle, he didn't hesitate another second and broke free, lunging forth. He caught his balance and stepped out towards what he assumed was his nephew, brother and Wendy, his vision blurry at first. He could see it all clearly within a moment's notice: his brother, standing tall with Dipper cradled in his arms, Wendy pinned under one of his feet.

“Dear Mozes! Are ya kids alright?! Dipper, are ya--” Stan exclaimed in concern as he approached almost instantly, receiving a piercing glare from his brother that made him stop in his tracks. Ford looked mad, mad at him, but for what? He didn't do anything wrong- “Stanley what were you thinking? Do you have any idea what could've- no, what would've happened if I weren't near by?? You've left the children unsupervised and you know how troublesome it is with the young Corduroy these days!” Ford yelled in his Stan's face, who simply stared down at the bloody wound on Dipper's side held by his brother in silence. “I am sorry, it wasn' intentional! I-I've been watchin' the kids, I swear! I jus'- i-it happened again and I- ya know I can't control it!” “Well then maybe you should!” “W-wha-” “Maybe you should know how to control it! Maybe you should do your best to learn to control it instead of sitting around, drinking soda and watching as your nephew gets torn to shreds!! Quit acting like a child and be the adult these children need you to be!” With that, neither of them spoke no more, only exchanged looks. A look of disappointment and anger piercing through that of defeat and guilt. Mabel watched silently as the two older twins parted their ways.

Ford made his way inside to tend to Dipper's wound while Stan took care of Wendy, then his niece, bringing her into a small preset pool in the living room. He said nothing when Mabel tried to tell him it was not his fault, because he knew better. It was his and his fault only. He offered to watch them and he failed. After bringing Mabel some snacks for the time she'd have to wait for his and her brothers' return from the bathroom, he left, not to be seen again for the rest of the day.

The shack was silent from there. Mabel was already fast asleep by the time Ford returned with his nephew bandaged up and asleep in his arms. He set the cervitaur into the armchair by Mabel's side, putting a blanket over him before he left for his room, making sure the shack was locked and secure before he himself retired to sleep.

The next day started alike to any other day. Ford went down into his study in the early morning like he always did, trying to find a way to reverse the effects of the mythical river Fluvius Cantus on himself, his family, and the whole town. It was around 10 AM that his niece called out for him upstairs. Bless his enhanced hearing on this one, for her call sounded once again like an emergency.

“I am coming!” The sphinx yelled as he rushed upstairs, only to find Mabel's call was not quite due to what he imagined. He found his niece and nephew in the living room, both awake and, inarguably, worried. The two of them were surrounded by the packets of snacks Stan had brought them yesterday, and shortly, Mabel was explaining why accordingly to Ford's questions. “What is the problem children? Did something happen? What's with all the packets?” “Grunkle Ford, Grunkle Stan hasn't shown up since yesterday!” “Yeah, we're worried.” Dipper added weakly. “He left me some snacks yesterday while I was waiting for you and Dipper and I haven't seen him since! We had to eat those for breakfast when he didn't show up to make some...” “Grunkle Stan never leaves just like that,” “Not without rambling about his 'evil' plans for the day,” “Wendy hasn't shown up, either, do you have any idea where the two of them could've gone?” Dipper asked, shooting his grunkle a worried look.

Stan was missing? He knew where the young Corduroy had gone- earlier that morning, she'd called to apologize for yesterday to which Ford advised her to take some time off and try meditation to handle her inner demons. Stan, however, had no reason to be missing. “I've told your friend Wendy to take some time off and gather herself, but I have no knowledge of my brother's whereabouts. Perhaps he'd left to commit some sort of misdeed of his, or restock for the Shack, who knows.” Ford commented, crossing his arms behind his back in thought. “Could you please look for him Grunkle Ford? Pretty please?” Mabel pleaded, holding her hands together as she puppy-eyed her great uncle. Ford was powerless against those eyes. “I suppose I could take a look around the Shack...” he murmured. “YAY! Thanks Grunkle Ford!” Mabel exclaimed, beaming. Dipper smiled lightly as the two of them watched their great uncle leave to check the shack for Stan, awaiting his return while turning on some Duck-tective to shorten their wait, although the two of them chattered about their Grunkle in worry for the main part, anyways.

Ford searched the whole interior of the shack in search for his brother. The bathroom, the attic, the bedrooms, museum, everywhere. It was when his search inside was in vein that he walked outside to look there. Fortunately for him, he could very easily look over the entire shack by taking a soar through the sky. Spreading his wings wide as he stepped out at the back of the shack, he was about to take off when he spot something with the corner of his eye. There he was. There was no mistaking the gargoyle statue settled atop the roof looming over the porch. Wheeling around, Ford looked up to his brother, closing his wings as he spoke. “You've been here this whole time? Hiding like a child? Stanley, the children are worried sick. I searched the entire shack in attempts to calm their concerns. Did you even think about that? About them?” He questioned, yet his twin gave no response. “You won't talk to me, will you? Well I don't have to bother, either. I shall tell Mabel and Dipper about your whereabouts. If you have any sort of conscience you'll come down and apologize. Don't leave the children waiting.” And once again, the older twin was on his leave, coming inside to inform his niece and nephew of Stan's safety.

Throughout the rest of the day, the twins were expecting their Grunkle intently, although to no avail. He didn't show up for the rest of the day, leaving Ford to take care of the twins on his own. The next day went down alike to the last one. No Stan, only Ford, having to drop his daily research to care for the twins. Change Dipper's bandages, check his wounds, change the water in Mabel's pool, feed the two, all that and more. He never thought his brother did so much for the kids and didn't just slack off. There were times the children asked to see their other great uncle, and so, eventually, Ford did bring the two of them outside to show them their Grunkle Stan. Nothing. Despite their attempts to call out to their Grunkle, the twins didn't get a response, either. It pained them to see their Grunkle like that, for they knew how much he disliked when he turned to stone, yet they knew that this time, it was possibly his own choice. Nonetheless, though, they couldn't help but ask a few questions. “Is this permanent?” “Is Grunkle Stan alright?” they questioned almost in sync. It was when Ford realised that, honestly “I don't know...” He had no idea whether his brother was ok, whether he was going to be alright, whether he would stay like this forever. The fact that the last thing he said to him was that he was pretty much a horrible caretaker with tendencies beyond childish didn't help him feel any better. This could all actually be his fault. Stan came out here and turned to stone just because he thought how worthless he was. It only made sense. He'd probably have to apologize to get him off the roof eventually, for the kids' sake if anything. Maybe he just needed some time? “Let's get you two back indoors, I'll find a way to get your great uncle off the roof.”

And with that, the three of them headed back inside. Soon enough, Ford tucked the twins in, although he couldn't quite sleep himself. He kept on thinking about Stanley, whether he should or shouldn't apologize. He was still angry about his brother's habits, but thinking about it now, Stanley really didn't mean it. He was in no control of what happend, and what happened happened. Perhaps he could help him control it? Help him meditate and learn how to take cont- BOOM! The loud sound of thunder interrupted his train of thought. It was past midnight when the storm struck up, waking up the twins upstairs. “AAAAH!!! Grunkle Ford!!” They screamed. Ford ran out of his room almost immediately, rushing up into the twins' bedroom to check up on the two. “Don't worry kids! It's just a storm... It'll be over shortly.” Ford said as he came into the room, trying to comfort the two. “B-but Grunkle Ford, Grunkle Stan is still outside! Could you please go check on him?“ Mabel asked with worry in her pleading eyes. It seemed they were not afraid of the storm itself, but afraid of what could happen to their Grunkle.

“Alright, stay here, I'll be back shortly.” Without any further hesitation, Ford left the shack for the back yard, stopping in front of the porch. With a light flap of his wings, he brought himself to the rooftop his brother sat upon, landing by his side as the rain slowly drenched his clothes. “Stanley!” Stanford called, grumbling lowly as another lightning struck, shaking the ground with its shortly following thunder. Frowning, the older twin spread a wing out over his brother to shield him off from the rain, leaning forward in attempts to see into his brother's face. “Stanley, the children are worried, quit this little act and get inside!” No response. Sighing, Ford settled down by Stan's side, keeping a wing spread overhead to keep him out of the heavy rain, although to a stone statue, it mattered none. Glancing aside, Stanford grumbled, setting his hands into his lap as he began his little confrontation. “Quit acting like a child, Stanley, it’s been three days... I am sorry, okay? I know you can't control it. I know you couldn't when Wendy attacked Dipper and I know it wasn't your intention. The things you do for the kids, the way you treat them... I know you would never intentionally stone yourself and let them get hurt. I was angry, I was afraid. Afraid of what could've happened if I hadn't come in time. I am sorry that I blamed you for something out of your control. Please, come inside and stop punishing yourself like this. I can try to help you with controlling it, help you learn how to prevent it just...please don't do this to yourself... To the kids... To me...” Receiving no response, the older twin looked down helplessly, giving a heavy sigh. “I-” “What do ya think I've been doing?” Ford started, only to be cut off by- Stanley. Dazed by the sudden response, the sphinx had a hard time speaking again, stammering. “W-w--what do you mean..?” “I am not stupid, Ford. I know I have no control over it, and I know I shoulda learn how to control it. So I've been here, tryin' ta' learn how ta' do it.” Stan explained as he lowered his wings, the stony shell around him crackling and falling off slowly, leaving the gargoyle dry and refreshed. “W-wait- so you are...you were not doing this to punish yourself...? You were not angry with me?” Ford questioned as the two of them met eyes. “Oh, no no, I was angry with ya, Poindexter. Glad ya figured ya'd come apologize now. I was about ta' give up to da rain. Don't get me wrong, da rain's nice, but the thunder part of it all is unnecessary.” “...So you were childishly ignoring me.” “Maaaybe?” This received Stan a light shove and almost immediately after a tight hug around the neck with a nuggie that almost instantly threw his fez off into his lap. “You little!-” “Little what?!” Stan exclaimed in between his chuckles, tackling his brother off the roof with laughter. It was a safe fall for the two of them, leaving them playfully rolling about in the mud on the ground as they laughed together, soon sitting up with light chuckles and huff while the rain slowly washed bits of the mud away. “Sixer?” “Yes, Stanley?” “Sorry fer actin' like an oversized kid.” “Heh... Sorry for acting like an adult know-it-all.” “Apology accepted.” “I suppose I need to ease up a little.” “I guess I need ta' grow up a little.” The two of them said in sync, laughing before smiling at eachother.

“GRUNKLE STAN!! GRUNKLE FORD!! ARE YOU GUYS-- oh...” The cervitaur kicking the back door of the shack yelled, carrying his sister on his back. The two of them were sure they'd just seen the two of them argue and fall off the roof in a scuffle- then again, it was hard to actually make out what they were saying through the window. “Dipper my boy, you-- you made it down the stairs? On your own? With Mabel on your back?” “I-” Dipper blushed. “Y-yeah I- I guess I just uh- we needed to check on you guys and- I am sorry I didn't listen-” “Don't be sorry, Dipper, you listened to your instincts and those told you your family might be in trouble. You acted very selflessly. I would've done the same. I am proud of you.” The sphinx and the cervitaur exchanged a smile, although it was soon replaced by an expression of shock as Mabel yelled: “Could you guys stop nerding out about this and focus on the important stuff?!” “Ouch-” Dipper huffed. “Grunkle Stan is back! And you guys made up! But uh- we should get inside. You guys could catch a cold and I am gonna *huff* I am gonna suffocate here.” “Ah- yes, let's get all back inside, quickly. Dipper, I'll need to check your bandages! Stanley, could you take care of Mabel?” “Sure thing Poindexter!” With that, the two of them stood, coming up to cradle their respective twins in their arms to care for them inside.

Getting a little moisture from her great uncle's wet suit, Mabel smiled as she was carried towards her pool, looking up to her Grunkle with a murmur: “I am glad you're back Grunkle Stan.” “I am glad ta' be back, too.”

WELP- Here you have it guys! This was one hell of a ride. It's the longest and the first thing I ever wrote and actually published. Is it good? Is it not? Who knows! I tried to keep it as short as possible. Hope you guys like the answer to what happened prior this picture:

Either way, hope you're having a swell day!

And as for the promised summary:

Summary: Grunkle Stan and the kids have a little accident with Dipper and Wendy, which Grunkle Stan sits through, being in his stone form. This angers Ford and he tells him to learn how to control it. From there, Stan disappears and is nowhere to be found, only to be later discovered on the roof in his statue form. He is irresponsive, everyone os worried, but in the end, everything turns out well.

#monsterfalls #monster falls #grunkle stan #grunkle ford #stanford pines #stanley pines #gravity falls #mabel pines #dipper pines #sphinxford #gargoylestan #gar grunkle stan #mermaid mabel #cervitaur dipper #deer dipper

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fallen-gravity · 4 years ago

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the calm after the storm

When Ford lost everything to Bill’s betrayal; his sleep, his only friend, his sense of security, his sanity, he thought for sure that at least, at the very least, he could still find comfort in the rumble of thunder and the spark of lightning, the same way he had as a child, because they were the one thing Bill couldn’t bend and twist to his liking.

What a naïve fool he had been.

Notes: Here's my entry for Week 1 of @forduary! This year's prompts are based on fanfic and art tropes, which I think is a real cool way to handle a fandom-wide event like this! The prompt was "Hurt/Comfort", so I went with the good ol' American classic of Nightmares. I hope you enjoy!

AO3 Link

When Ford was a kid, he loved thunderstorms more than anything else.

Thunder and lightning were his siren songs. When most people would reasonably be tucked away at home with a book or spent the day in bed, Ford would hear thunder and it would be his cue to kick off his bed covers, put his shoes on, and drag Stan out of the house with him to go exploring.

Thunderstorms were one of the only guarantees that the beach would be abandoned on a summer’s afternoon. If Ford wanted to go exploring for buried treasure in the sand, a dark and stormy afternoon was always going to be his best bet. Best of all, the storm brought things from the ocean onto the shore with its ravenous winds, and lightning strikes brought sea glass, which he and Stan would sneak home in their pockets.

In his college years, when he was too busy studying for any hands-on exploration outdoors, thunder and lightning no longer excited him as much as it did when he was a child. Rather, it filled him with a sense of comfort and nostalgia. If he were working at his desk in his dorm room when it began to rain, he would gather everything together and continue to work on his bed so he could look out his window at the rain as he worked.

It would not be until his early years in Gravity Falls that the excitement from his childhood would return to him. Thunder and lightning would bring frightened anomalies to his back porch seeking refuge from the pounding rain, and all he had to do if he wanted to take notes was take a peek out his back window.

When he lost everything to Bill’s betrayal; his sleep, his only friend, his sense of security, his sanity, he thought for sure that at least, at the very least, he could still find comfort in the rumble of thunder and the spark of lightning, because they were the one thing Bill couldn’t bend and twist to his liking.

What a naïve fool Ford had been back then.

He’s hanging in shackles in the Fearamid. The stench of his own smoking skin fills his nose and waters his eyes, and if not for the chain clenched tightly around his neck he’d surely be vomiting at the sensation.

“You ready to talk now?” Bill’s shrill voice pierces through Ford’s skull.

“Never!” Ford shouts, his chains jingling as he speaks. “I’ll die before you get a single word out of me!” He spits at Bill’s feet.

Bill squints, and for a moment Ford thinks he’s about to start shocking him again. He braces for impact, but the shock never comes.

Instead, Bill groans like he’s bored.

“You’re no fun anymore, Sixer” Bill crosses his arm. “It’s always no, I won’t reactivate the portal, and no, I won’t join you in the nightmare realm, and no, I won’t hand over the rift. I’m sick of it!”

Bill raises his hand to snap his fingers, and the color drains from Ford’s face. He does everything he can to avoid the impact of whatever Bill’s about to do to him, attempting to squirm backwards and yank his wrists loose, but he doesn’t budge so much as an inch.

Bill snaps his fingers, and Ford squeezes his eyes shut, and…

He’s being lowered to the ground. Ford pops an eye open, just to make sure Bill’s not playing tricks on him, or that he’s shrinking, but…no, his feet really are being lowered to the ground.

Ford’s shackles disappear, and he rubs at his tender wrists. “I…” he tries to bite, but he’s too baffled to finish his sentence. “I don’t understand”

“You want to play games with me so badly, then let’s play a game” Bill’s voice becomes distorted as his feet slam to the ground so hard it cracks. Ford takes a few cautious steps backwards. Bill snaps his fingers again, and the entire interior of the Fearamid transforms into a labyrinth. “If you can find your way out of here before I catch up to you, I let you go.”

Ford swallows hard. “What’s the catch?”

“That’s just it!” Bill responds giddily. “If I catch you before you escape, you have to tell me the equation. I’m not asking anymore.”

“What…What about the kids?”

“Won’t touch a hair on their puny heads! I promise.” Bill tips his hat towards him. Ford…seriously doubts that, but if there’s any chance he can get out of here and bring Dipper and Mabel with him to safety, he’s taking it.

“Fine!”

Bill clasps his hands together. “Perfect,” he replies, his voice dark and low. A large timer suddenly appears on the ceiling. “And since I’m such a gracious host, I’m giving you a two minute head start.”

He snaps his fingers once more, and he sprouts four more limbs and grows about eight feet taller. “You’re gonna need it.”

Without waiting for another word, Ford blindly sprints off in a random direction. He’s read extensive papers discussing minotaurs and their labyrinths, and the common traps one could find in them, so he should be out of here in no time. Just as he’s about to round a corner, a sudden streak of lightning strikes the wall, and a large pile of debris blocks his path.

From somewhere behind him Bill lets out a sickeningly shrill laugh as Ford backtracks to go a different route. He tries running back in the direction he came in, but another lightning strike blocks that path, too.

“Time’s up!” Bill shouts, and Ford stumbles off down a random clear path. It’s not a very long one, because tween one blink and the next he’s smacking head first into Bill’s outstretched hand. The color drains from Ford’s face as he’s lifted from the ground to meet Bill’s….many, many eyes. He doesn’t say anything else, simply morphs his hand into a giant taser.

“No!” Ford attempts to squirm as Bill brings the taser closer to his neck. “No! You promised!”

“I promised you I wouldn’t touch the kids! I never said anything about you.”

“No!” Ford shouts, and just as the taser is about to come in contact with his skin, there’s a pressure on his arm, like someone’s gently pushing him.

Ford’s eyes fly open, and he nearly smashes his forehead against Mabel’s. His heart feels like it’s pounding hundreds of miles per hour, but it begins to slow when he realizes that he’s in his own room.

“Mabel?” he grips at his chest as he sits up. “What are you doing up?” He’d hate to have been the reason she woke up in the middle of the night.

She snorts as she takes a seat beside him on his couch. “It’s nine-thirty in the morning, Grunkle Ford, I’m always up this early!”

Ford’s about to ask how that could be when it’s still so dark in his room, but a roll of thunder outside his window answers that question for him. He flinches at the sound of it, and beside him Mabel places her tiny hand on top of his.

When he turns to meet her eyes there’s a deep sadness in them that could tear his heart in two. “Are you okay, Grunkle Ford?”

There isn’t nearly enough time in the universe to answer that question truthfully. He turns his hand to interlock his fingers with hers, and he squeezes gently. “I’m fine, sweetie, don’t worry about me”

She pouts, and returns the gesture of squeezing his hand. “I heard you talking in your sleep when I walked by. I wasn’t gonna bother you, but…” she turns her gaze towards the floor. “I…heard you say Bill’s name”

As if the universe itself were listening to her speak, a streak of lightning flashes across the sky at his name. Ford winces, and his grip on Mabel’s hand briefly tightens. She frowns, and scooches closer to rest her head on his shoulder. “I’m sorry,” she murmurs, voice muffled by his turtleneck.

He knows that she still blames herself for Weirdmageddon. She had come into the lab in the basement not too long ago and told him everything; from the argument she got into with Dipper to handing the rift over to Bill’s awaiting hands. It nearly broke his heart in two to see her so heartbroken and afraid. He’d told her that it wasn’t her fault, and that it was nearly inevitable it was going to happen eventually. She seemed to accept that, and hadn’t said anything about it to him since.

Still, he knows better than most that the guilt never truly leaves you be, and that it tends to sneak up from behind and eat you alive when you least expect it to.

“No need to be sorry, my dear” Ford replies, winding an arm around Mabel to hold her closer. “I’ve been having these sorts of nightmares since far before Weirdmageddon ever happened.”

“Then…why last night?” Mabel looks up at him, her soft brown eyes pooling with worry.

“Well, if I had to hazard a guess…” Ford taps at his chin. Before he can give it much more thought, another streak of lightning crackles outside, which makes him flinch. Mabel’s gaze switches back and forth between Ford and the window behind them, and she jumps up to her feet.

“That’s it!” she shouts, spinning towards him with a…very out of place grin plastered to her face. She takes his hands in her own. “Grunkle Ford, are you afraid of thunderstorms?”

Ford blushes so hard that his ears burn. “It…hasn’t been a fear I’ve had since childhood, but it seems like in turn of recent events…” He tugs awkwardly at the collar of his turtleneck.

“Aww, you don’t have to be so modest, Grunkle Ford! I’m not gonna judge you.” She offers a hand out to him, smiling sweetly. “As a matter of fact, I know a cure for just the thing, if you’d follow me”

A soft chuckle escapes Ford as he takes her up on her offer. He places his hand in hers, and she helps tug him to his feet. She guides him by the hand out of his room and towards the living room. Stan must still be asleep, because his recliner is unoccupied.

“Here we are!” She pats at the armrest with her free hand. “There’s a few things I need to put together, but you can sit right here while I go grab them.” She gently pats at his forearm. “You don’t need to worry your pretty little head about the rest”

…Interesting choice of words, but Ford doesn’t question them. He takes a seat in Stan’s recliner, and as soon as he kicks his feet up Mabel beams and skips off in another direction. He doesn’t have long to wonder what she could be planning, because only about a minute or two passes before a giant pile of blankets comes walking back into the room.

Mabel drops the pile in front of the recliner with a grunt. “There we go!” She grins, clasping her hands together. “This should be plenty enough for our pillow fort”

“Our…pillow fort?”

“Yeah!” she beams. “Pillow forts are like, the number one cure for everything, right behind hugs and glitter.” She nods matter-of-factly. “It’s science! You should know, Grunkle Ford” She says, and heads towards the kitchen to grab a few chairs.

Ford can’t help but smile warmly as he stands to help her. They gather all of the chairs from the kitchen and place them in a large circle around the recliner, spaced out just enough that there’s plenty of crawlspace between them and just close enough together to prevent the blankets from falling off. Once Mabel is satisfied with their placement, she begins placing the blankets on top of the chairs, letting the larger blankets come all the way to the floor to act as entrances to the fort. It’s a touchup of the blankets here and a small adjustment of the chair placements here, and Mabel steps back to admire their work.

“And...That should do it! I’m gonna go grab some more blankets and pillows for the inside, but you can feel free to head in without me” She beams, and she’s already off again before he can respond. Ford rolls his eyes at her fondly, and gets down onto his hands and knees to crawl inside the fort.

The change of scenery is instantaneous, in every meaning of the word. The inside of the fort is dark, save for the beams of light from the room outside seeping through the gaps of the blankets. It’s warm, from the heat trapped within each of the blankets. It’s quiet, so much so that the pounding of the rain on the windows sounds like nothing more than a muffled drizzle. It’s comfortable, despite the only available seat being the floor itself.

It’s a sensory deprivation tank without the claustrophobia; a safe space Ford could see himself losing time to.

“Hey!” Mabel’s cheery voice cuts smoothly through the silence. She crawls through the blanket flap with an armful of blankets and a bowl full of fresh popcorn. “Sorry that took so long, I figured if we were gonna spend the whole afternoon in here that you were gonna want a snack” She places the bowl of popcorn on the ground between them, and hands Ford a pillow.

Ford gently squeezes the pillow to his chest. “Mabel?”

“Yeah?”

Ford can feel the heat rising to his cheeks. “How did…how did you know?”

She cocks her head. “How’d I know what?”

“How did you know that…all of this would work?”

“Oh!” Mabel grins. “Pssh, that’s easy. Don’t tell Dipper I told you this, but he was absolutely terrified of rain when we were younger. It didn’t even have to be storming out, just as long there was rain falling from the sky. And all it took for him to calm down was tearing apart our beds and building a fort, so I figured that since you two are like, the same exact person that it would work for you too!” She gently taps at her forehead. “You two aren’t the only smart twins around here”

Ford laughs, winding an arm around her to bring her close to him. “Thank you, sweetheart. It’s working wonders”

The grin that spreads across her face could burn out the sun. She reciprocates his gesture, winding a tiny arm around him and resting her head on his chest.

Growing up, he’d been taught that there was no place for fear. Fear made you weak, and the only way to deal with it was to harshly beat it down until it was no more. You were to show fear that you were strong, and tough, and succumbing to it could only lead to your demise.

Worst of all, Ford believed it wholeheartedly. Shutting himself out from the world, sacrificing sleep, and comfort, and love, Ford truly believed he was winning his battles. There was nothing to fear if he had nothing at all.

But now, sitting in this tiny little fort made of love, listening to the rain with his great-niece by his side, he realizes that this is what he’s needed all along. You don’t defeat your fears by beating them into the ground, you defeat them with love, the love of those who care enough about you to fight by your side. And even though thunder is not tangible, something he can reach out and mold to his liking, he knows that in time, he will be back out there, learning to love the rain again with his long-lost childhood wonder.

And as he finds himself dozing off in the warmth of his niece’s arms, Ford knows that this storm will only be the first of many of its kind.

He looks forward to each of them.

#my writing #gravity falls #forduary #sweater twins #ford and mabel bonding

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mysterykidscasefiles · 4 years ago

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Mystery Kids and the Case of the Whispering Rock

Summary: Norman, Neil, Coraline, Wybie, Raz and Lili arrive at Grunkle Stan’s Summer Camp with the hope of having a summer of fun, or in the case of the two Psychonauts, with the intent of investigating a psychic disturbance. When they meet two twins that seem to be experts on the secrets of Gravity Falls, they find themselves reluctantly teaming up. But how much can they actually trust each other? There are secrets in this town, but more surprising are the secrets being kept from each other.

Table of Contents

Chapter 23: Lost and Found

“What? B-but that’s not possible!” Wybie exclaimed as he stared flabbergasted at the old cabin in the giant tree. “We walked away from it! In a straight line! How can we be back here?”

Coraline placed a hand on his friend’s shoulder. “I know, Wyborn, believe me, I know.” Coraline looked miffed, but not quite as freaked out as her friend.

“This doesn’t make any sense!” Wybie continued in frustration. “I built this compass myself and we only traveled east! We couldn’t have made it back here!”

Dipper rubbed the bridge of his nose. “This happens sometimes, but don’t freak out. Actually, we’re lucky. In this forest, we could have ended up in worse places than here.”

“What do you mean?” Norman asked. “Has this happened to you before?”

“A few times,” Mabel said with a shrug. “It happens sometimes when we get lost or when we go too deep into the forest. It’s like the forest doesn’t want us to leave.”

Mabel’s tone was as cheerful as always and it seemed out of place for the situation. Raz wasn’t sure if it was comforting that she wasn’t worried, or if the girl just had an underdeveloped sense of danger.

“You two talk like the forest is alive or something,” Wybie said.

“It is alive, genius,” Lili said while rolling her eyes. “The forest is made out of trees and trees are alive.”

“That’s not what he meant, and you know it,” Coraline said, jumping to her friend’s defense. “He meant the twins talk like the forest has a conscience.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” Dipper said, “But sometimes it sure seems like it… wants to keep us here.”

“What do you guys think we should do?” Norman asked the twins. “You two know the forest better than we do.”

“Well… we have to stop relying on our eyes,” Dipper said. “It’s only going to confuse us more.”

“And forget about common sense,” Mabel added. “It's useless here. Right is left and left is right. Backwards can be forwards and going in circles might as well be going straight.”

Dipper nodded. “The best thing to do would be to wait for nightfall so we can use the stars to guide us out. If we try and get out the conventional way then we’ll end up wandering around the forest until we pass out or get lost somewhere worse. We're lucky we keep coming back to this tree. One time Mabel and I wondered so far it became dark in the middle of the day.”

Mabel's smile faltered. "It wasn't a normal kind of darkness. There were no clouds or stars."

"How did you guys get out?" Neil asked with rapt attention.

Mabel glanced at Dipper, who has a far-off look in his eyes. “We’re not sure…” Dipper admitted. “To this day we still aren’t sure what happened. It was so dark that I couldn’t see Mabel even though she was standing right next to me. Luckily we had flashlights so we could walk without running into the trees. We were walking for about an hour, probably getting even more lost, when we heard a scratching sound coming to our left. When I shined the flashlight on where the noise came from we saw a small arrow scratched into the bark of the tree. It was fresh, so we knew something had just been right next to us when it had made the arrow.”

Did you follow the arrow?” Neil asked.

“We didn’t have much choice,” Dipper admitted. “Up to this point we were wandering aimlessly and I don’t think we could have gotten more lost. A few minutes later, we heard another scratching sound off to the side, but when we turned our flashlight towards it, we couldn’t see anyone. When we looked closer at the tree, there was another arrow carved in the bark. This continued to happen and we kept following the arrows until the sky started to lighten again and we could see the sun. No matter how hard we tried, we never saw who…. or what helped us.”

“I saw fur!” Mabel exclaimed eagerly. “I’m pretty sure whoever helped us had fur...I think. It was pretty dark.”

Dipper shrugged. “Those are the only things we have to go on. It might have had fur and it was obviously agile enough to avoid our flashlight.”

“You guys have seen a lot of strange things, haven’t you?” Raz asked thoughtfully.

“It’s this town,” Dipper admitted. “It’s weird… really weird. Mabel and I have seen things we can’t explain. I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can, but I didn’t want to drag you guys into it. As you can see, it can get dangerous.”

Raz entertained the possibility of searching through Dipper’s memories the way he had Coraline’s. There may be something in Dipper’s memories that would lead them to the disturbance they were searching for. However, something gave Raz pause.

He was still feeling guilty about the way he rummaged through Coraline’s memories and caused her to have a nightmare the previous night. He had wanted to find information that might lead him to the psychic disturbance, not to retraumatize her.

In addition, Raz didn’t really know what he was looking for. He knew Dipper and Mabel had seen weird things in the town, but would they really have information about the psychic disturbance they were looking for? There were also restrictions around looking through civilian memories, especially minors, Unless Raz had reason to believe they had information related to his mission, he wasn’t supposed to go through a civilian’s memories.

Raz decided that he would first try to ask Mabel and Dipper more questions about the mysterious things they have seen in Gravity Falls, as well as try and look around the town. If Raz discovered that Dipper or Mabel might know something related to the disturbance, and refused to share, then he would search through one of their memories.

“So, assuming we aren’t going to be saved by a potentially hairy monster that carves arrows into trees, what should we do?” Coraline asked.

“We are just getting ourselves more lost by wandering around,” Dipper said. “As much as I hate to be in this forest at night, we might have to wait for the stars to guide us out. That’s usually the safest way once we’re already lost.”

"We have to stay out here until it gets dark?” Wybie asked nervously, glancing around.

“I know it’s not the best plan,” Dipper agreed, sounding just as worried. “But it’s the only thing I can think of that wont get us more lost.”

“Actually, Lili is really good at reading a forest,” Raz spoke up. “The tree’s look different the farther you go in, and Lili can notice little differences like that. We don't have to wait. We can follow her out of here. After all, she was the one that knew we were going in the wrong direction from the very beginning.”

Lili didn’t react to Raz’s vote of confidence, but he could tell she was pleased. Raz knew Lili could use her herbaphony to get them back home easily.

At least, he hoped it would be easy. They had used a compass, gone straight, and still ended up back where they started.

“Hold on, it’s because of Lili we’re out here in the first place,” Coraline pointed out. "How can we trust her not to get us more lost?"

"Listen, Blue." Lili sneared. "I'm the only one that can get us out of here within the next few hours. So unless you want to wait until it gets dark and the Little Dipper can use the Big Dipper to get us home, then you'll shut your trap and follow me."

Coraline raised an eyebrow at Lili at the same time Mabel broke into a fit of giggles.

"Mabel, it wasn't that funny," Dipper said in annoyance.

"No Dip, it was hilarious!" Mabel choked out, barely able to breathe. “Little Dipper!”

"Well then..." Coraline said, a smile tugging on her lips. "I guess anything is better than nothing. Lead the way."

Lili turned around and walked past the giant tree. She was heading in the opposite direction they had been traveling in. There was hesitation from the group at first, but then everyone began following her. Raz tried to suppress the feeling inside of him that told him they were going the wrong way. He trusted Lili and she knew what she was doing.

Lili led them west, then north. Raz swore they passed the same trees that they had seen just minutes ago, but he kept quiet. There was one point where Lili led them around in what he thought was a definite circle only for them to end up in a completely new area.

Lili was frowning the entire time, a confused look on her face. She looked as lost as everyone else, but she seemed to put her faith in something other than her sense of direction.

They were traveling for a half an hour, but even Coraline held back her sarcastic commentary. Raz knew what Coraline was thinking without having to read her mind: Lili had either gotten them closer to home, or twice as lost.

Finally, the trees began to thin and Dipper let out a squeak of excitement. "I know where we are!" he shouted. "We're almost to the town!"

“How did you do that?” Neil asked Lili in awe.

“Like Raz said, I’m just really good at understanding plants,” Lili explained with a shrug.

“Man, it’s going to be so easy navigating the forest with you around!” Dipper said with a laugh.

Lili glanced at Dipper from the corner of her eyes, her eyebrows twitching upwards in surprise.

“Yeah, not bad Plant-girl,” Coraline said, nudging Lili with her shoulder playfully. “Looks like you are useful for something.”

“At least one of us is,” Lili said with a smirk.

Coraline rolled her eyes, but she was smiling. After a moment, Coraline’s expression faltered. “So umm…” she began awkwardly. “I guess I should have trusted you earlier when you said you knew the right way to go. That was my bad.”

Raz had a feeling that was as close to an apology that Lili was going to get, but from the look on Lili’s face, that was more than she had been expecting.

Lili shrugged. “Whatever, Blue. One of these days you’re going to figure out that I’m always right.”

Rax placed his arm around his girlfriend’s shoulders. “And if she’s ever wrong, we’ll get the bravest or the most gullible person we know to break the news to her, so the rest of us can run for cover.”

Lili gave him a shove. “Shut it, Raz!”

Raz chuckled, stumbling a bit. He grabbed Lili’s hand in his own as they walked, and she allowed him to. This was the first time Raz noticed that Lili was slowly starting to relax around the other kids.

Raz glanced at his girlfriend and then back at the other kids. Raz knew this mission wasn't anything like what he and Lili had expected. They went into this thinking it would be a simple recon mission. They were just supposed to find the psychic disturbance and report back to Agent Nein.

Now, they were no closer to finding the psychic disturbance, but they did find a ghost of a psychic kid with false memories, a blue haired girl who was being hunted by a terrifying otherworldly creature, a magic cabin that used to belong to witches, and an even stranger forest.

Raz hoped that whatever happened next, he and Lili would be able to handle it on their own, and the other kids wouldn’t get themselves involved. However, with this group’s track record for seeking out dangerous and unusual situations, Raz wasn’t holding his breath.

End of Act 1

I actually finished act 1? It’s been how many years and act 1 is finally complete?! I’m still having trouble believing it. This story still has two more acts to it. I have a lot of Act 2 written, but it was written a while ago, so I have to do a lot of rewriting. But at least I have a pretty good outline.

Thank you all for all your comments, they really keep me going and inspire me to continue to work on this story. Let me know what you guys thought of act 1.

If act 1 is all about meeting each other, then act 2 is about learning to trust each other, and act three… well, I wont say too much there.

If you want to support me, here is the link to my ko-fi

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#Mystery Kids #Mystery Kids Case Files #gravity falls #coraline #paranorman #psychonauts #Whispering Rock fic

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