#Polyportal!Stan AU

[donethedevilspedicure]

For a long time now, I've been wanting to write something based on Star Treatment by Arctic Monkeys, but with my writer's block being what it is, it probably won't happen. So instead, here's what I told Cart (@/cartoonsinthemorning) about it!

Six fingered!Stan AU feat. Age Gap Stancest and Reverse Portal

In this AU, as the title says, Stan was the one to be born with six fingers on each hand. Everything else about the twins is the same – their personalities are the same, Ford is still a super genius, Stan is still prone to lying and punching things.

Since Ford is very individualistic and believes himself to be special, he still thinks that, but it's only based on his intellect in this case. There's nothing that physically sets him apart from his peers, but he’s still Ford, so he still does not like other children or form friendships with other people than his own twin. He still gets teased for being weird, however, as children are cruel, and Stan's extra fingers, them being twins, and Ford’s mannerisms just makes them more of a “the freak Pines twins” unit rather than the onus being all on Ford being the freak. More on how that affects Ford and their general relationship later.

Stan, however, takes to having six fingers much much differently than his brother in canon. Inspired by how he takes to the role of Mr. Mystery in canon, in this AU, he likes to show off his hands to kids and adults, not minding whether the attention he gets is positive or negative, and he can defend himself if he gets bullied. He even postulates that having larger hands makes him better at punching things. They're a part of him that he's proud of, and he feels cool for having them, rather than being like canon Ford who hides his hands and sees them both as a mark of being some sort of the chosen one as well as destined to be ostracized from society. Stan understands the necessity of leaning into the clown mask that he was born with, in order to fit in, if that makes sense.

So. As they grow older, the strain from being even more of a freak unit as children becomes very heavy on Ford. He longs both for being the most special of them, loathes every instance where Stan is the one to get attention, while also not wanting to share Stan with anyone. I like to imagine that he goes a little mad with being obsessed with Stan and them being twins, to the point where he regularly fantasizes about a way to incorporate Stan into himself and make them one – one as in, make them be just Ford. Ford feels like Stan holds a key component to who he, Ford is, and he hates him for it and wants to run away from his twin, while also suffering from deep obsession with Stan. This of course results in Ford having deep sexual urges for Stan that he tries his hardest to suppress, resulting in them drifting slightly apart as they grow up.

Stan, in the meantime, still thinks Ford hung the stars and the moon, and is not at all pleased that Ford pulls away from him. But without Ford being the sole twin with all the freakiness, Stan has also been less conditioned to cling to his brother like moss by not having to protect Ford all his childhood while being almost invisible himself, so while he still never becomes the popular guy, he does manage to develop a hobby outside of being Ford’s brother. In this case, it's his music teacher that encourages him to learn the piano because of his six fingers, and Stan, as we know, is smart when he wants to be, so he learns very quickly.

This is not to say that they aren't close, and that their dream of sailing the world isn't still there – it is. But when Ford gets offered a scholarship to WCT, Stan is heartbroken but does not destroy the machine. Rather, after Ford succeeds in impressing the representatives, he packs up his things and leaves quietly without saying goodbye.

Ford then goes to college, but seeing as he is going somewhere where everyone else is as smart as him, he gets to experience just living up to expectations. Which is horrible for him. He gets hired to teach after his first degree and hates every second of it, then, at the age of maybe 30-35, he decides to study anomalies because he's been spiralling about not being special and still obsessed with his twin brother and his hands after all those years. Seeing as he isn't anything special, he then saves up his salary to move to Gravity Falls on his own, already half mad. The portal still happens. The postcard still happens.

As for Stan, he has been living off piano gigs, sometimes for a night only, sometimes for a season or two. He misses Ford, and he's still nomadic in nature, but he drifts through life a little more aimlessly, trying to fill the hole inside himself with sex and drinking. When he gets the postcard, he has just been offered to be signed to a record label and promised fame (“a jazz pianist with six fingers! You're bound for Hollywood!”) and yet, he still chooses Ford over that. But he thinks about it, hard, before he does.

So when they fight, it's a fight that's much more vicious on Ford’s behalf compared to Stan, who’s more sad-hurt that Ford still pushes him away, and therefore, Stan doesn’t fight back as hard as he does in canon. And therefore, Stan is the one to be pushed into the portal. Where he eventually ends up at an alien jazz bar (a little more sophisticated than the cantina in Star Wars), where he decides to just stay and mourn the loss of his potential and cursing his fingers (Ford probably spat a lot of bullshit about how Stan didn't deserve to be the special of them, it should have been Ford, and Stan just took it).

Until a more canon Old Ford comes by and decides to woo this six fingered, jaded Stan ✨ Which is where it gets interesting and where I haven't thought further than “dang that would be hot”, haha.

[donethedevilspedicure]

No you’re cooking with that age gap stancest with polydactyl Stan

Thank you so much! It's definitely close to my heart too, but as of now, I haven't yet found the ~hook~ to actually make it a proper story and not just vibes. And the occasional hallucination to Star Treatment, of course