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nenoname · 4 months ago

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Journal 3’s references to Stan

(…does the Lost Pages count as J3 when some had to be in J2 and also may or may not be a truth lie turducken? idk. Ford’s TBoB letters sure as hell don’t count as J3 but I’m including them here anyway)

Lost Journal Pages

"STANLEY COULD HAVE MADE HER LAUGH"

“My stomach sank a bit when I realized… it was my birthday. This day has felt… odd, since S and I… parted ways.”

"I was adjusting my TV antennae for weather reports (looking for ideal conditions for F's first portal test) and spat out my coffee when I saw THIS! My brother hawking scams under the name "Panley Stines." I had half a mind to call that number, just to pretend to be the police and maybe scare S straight for once! There is something so galling about seeing your OWN FACE committing crimes on your own TV! When my Muse saw me break my stress ball, I decided it was finally time to vent about Stanley."

""How about that; you've got an inferior clone! Why didn't you just eat him in the womb? Think of how powerful you'd be!"

"You can't just eat your twin, Bill."

You'd be surprised what you can eat! I say sure, call him if you want him to start mooching off you again! ME, I went no contact with my home dimension and I don't regret it. All they did was hold me back and sabotage my talents! Can you imagine?"

"More than you know. But you do ever wonder if maybe... maybe things could have been different?""

"Our heat budget was so tight that Mom forced S and me to wear one sweater at the same time. (She called it the "Abominable Snow-Stan." Our cat lived in fear of it year-round.)"

“DAMN! This morning I found F rummaging through my old copy of Urban Legends of New Jersey, where I had forgotten I had hidden some old personal items! I’ve quickly re-hidden them here, away from prying eyes.”

"But then he crossed a line. Helplessly I watched Cipher in my own body limp up to a pay phone and dial... STANLEY'S phone number from the infomercial?! No. He wouldn't.

"Hey brother, it's Sixer. I'm going to take a swim in the frozen lake tomorrow, and I might not ever come back, so if you don't hear from me, I just want you to know that it's because I never loved you. BUH-BYEEEEE."

My heart was in my throat until I heard the dial tone... The pay phone was out of order. The message hadn't gotten through. Cipher turned back to address me.

"TSK, TSK, TSK. LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME MAKE YOU DO! TOMORROW'S TAPE IS GONNA BE MUCH WORSE.""

(Bro secret code) "miss you"

“The snow has begun to fall again and there’s very little time. There’s only one left I can turn to to protect my journals while I prepare for the journey…”

"S is an overgrown child with none of my rigorous mental training. Who knows what could happen if Cipher stepped inside Stanley's mind for even one minute...

What if Stanley somehow manages to destroy the portal just like he destroyed my perpetual motion machine? I suppose that machine did work in its own way... It kept me perpetually angry for thirty years."

(Bro secret code) "HAVE I BEEN TOO HARSH ALL ALONG?"

"What if he tries to rope me into his latest get-rich-quick scheme? His latest commercial was for "Stan Sauce: The Miracle Sauce that's too cool for the FDA!"

What if... he mocks me? What if he sees that I abandoned our family to become a recluse on the brink of madness? Could I risk admitting that I was... wrong?

PROS: I have no one else. Well, that settles it. It's time to come face-to-face with a face I haven't seen in 10 years. My own face. Which... is my brother's face. God, I miss sleep."

Ford’s Letters

"In the weeks since Weirdmageddon, I conducted numerous tests on Stanley's mind (his terrible jokes are still intact) and inspected the state for dimensional leakage (we also took turns kicking the statue, and Stanley took a few cracks with a crowbar). I burned every Cipher-shaped item I had ever collected, and even threw away all my one-dollar bills, just to be safe (Stanley, of course, found and pocketed them).

“I emerged from my lab after days of agonized contemplation to find- to my shock- that Mabel was reading the book, out loud, to Stanley, Dipper, Soos, and Wendy!”

“They didn’t see me as an irredeemable screwup. Stanley said, "So, your past is just a giant pile of mistakes? Congratulations- you really are a Pines!”“

"Bill may tell you that happiness requires conquering galaxies and living forever, but I've seen enough of the universe to tell you that he's wrong. I've found my happiness. And it looks like this:"

"If you're reading this... then I am dead. Kidding! Sorry, Stanley thought that would be funny. Ha-ha! We're currently out shopping for harpoons to prepare for our trip to the arctic."

"Stan, if you end breaking into my lab at some point later today- Bravo! Still as good a locksmith as in 8th grade. Beers are under the desk."

(It kinda strikes me that the BoB Lost Journal pages about Stan sound far more like post-portal Ford’s opinions on Stan instead, where he’s openly angry at both being pushed into the portal + at the portal being opened again + his murder suicide attempt being foiled + Stan disowning him + turning his house into a tourist trap + taking his identity vs pre-portal Ford being more… melodramatic(?) constantly being reminded of him but not wanting to linger too long? idk the vibes are different

Plus pre-portal Ford pretty consistently only calls Stan "S” or just refers to him as his brother (with the exception of him writing his name in a Caesar cipher). I think he only ever messes up the general naming scheme a single time when he wrote Fiddleford instead of F

…not to mention the perpetual motion machine comment says thirty instead of ten years)

Other sections: Pre-Portal, Post-Portal, Post-Weirdmageddon

#shout out to all the folks who thought ford was telling stan to find bees #but nevermind all that-- what the hell do you mean snow in glass shard was made of seagull beaks #that finally sank in and i honestly feel viscerally ill #gravity falls #stanley pines #stan pines #ford pines #stanford pines #journal 3 #the book of bill #stan twins #thisisnotawebsitedotcom #man we desperately need more post tbob ford cos rereading pre weirdmageddon ford is just depressing #and immediate post weirdmageddon ford still feels like he's finding his footing #i want more of the stan twins teaming up to be assholes to others ksadhksjdhsa that joke to dipper was mean i love that for them #anyway im chewing on the clearly young stan commercial being used when it was supposed to be close to the portal test...

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atalana · 5 months ago

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second thing from the book of bill i wanna overanalyse! ford's journal entry right before he sent that postcard to stan (written out for ease of reading)

CONS: 1) S is an overgrown child with none of my rigorous mental training. Who knows what could happen if Cipher stepped inside Stanley's mind for even one minute... 2) What if Stanley somehow manages to destroy the portal like he destroyed my perpetual motion machine? I suppose that machine did work in it's own way... It kept me perpetually angry for thirty years! [Coded message: Have I been too harsh all along?] 3) What if he tries to rope me into his latest get-rich-quick scheme? His latest commercial was for "Stan Sauce: The Miracle Sauce that's too cool for the FDA!" 4) What if... he mocks me? What if he sees that I abandoned our family to become a recluse on the brink of madness? Could I risk admitting that I was... wrong? PROS: I have no one else.

like okay, to take this point by point

1) i keep comparing this one with "you would have seen him for the scam artist he is" in the finale. it took ford that long to come around on the idea that stan actually does have areas where he's the smarter twin. the idea that stan could be better equipped than ford to handle bill is something that never occurred to him, ford was just focused on "only the most intelligent person could beat bill and i can't so what hope does stanley have??". which is exactly how bill suckered him in the first place

2) it took me a few rereads on this one to realise what it was ford was actually afraid of? like, yes, he wants to shut down the portal, he doesn't want bill to use it. but just like with his journals, he's terrified of the idea of the portal being destroyed. it doesn't matter that it was furthering bill's plans, or that leaving all of these things intact just increases the chance of them being used for harm in the future - that's his life's work! it's his ticket to being recognised by the whole world for how great he is!

ford you are full on "fairytale king can't let go of his fortune even when it dooms the world" here. you can blame other people all you like, but the reason you got sucked through the portal (starting the chain that would eventually cause the apocalypse), is that the portal was still fully functional. like! you could have stopped all of this by just taking the portal apart. but you would never be able to rebuild it, because it was a joint effort between you bill and mcgucket, and neither one of them will ever help you again. you got addicted to the idea of the glory you would get for this, and your self esteem is rapidly dwindling the more you realise how wrong you were, so as far as you're concerned, this is all you've got. and just like your dreams of going to that college, you're scared stan will take it away from you

2.5) the fact that "have i been too harsh all along" is the part in code. because even while you're considering it, you don't want to acknowledge it. of everything you wrote here, that's the part you're ashamed of, and so you're hiding it where no one could possibly read it.

3) this is just an excuse to rag on stanley and feel better about yourself. do not pretend for even a moment like this is a genuine worry. what could stan possibly do to rope you into a scheme that would be worse than the situation you've already cooked up for yourself? it's not like you have a problem saying no to him

4) there's the meat of the issue! the shame is back! it's been motivating you your entire life, it sure ain't stopping now you've got something to legitimately be ashamed of!

but this is also the most clearheaded and honest about the whole situation we've seen ford be. it really does feel like a tipping point where it could have gone one way or the other - if the portal hadn't split them up again for another thirty years, it's possible stan might have been able to get through to him here. it wouldn't have been easy, but there was a chance

and then god that last line hits so hard, i had to stop for a moment when reading and just let that one sit with me. like you have a whole page of reasons why you don't want to involve stan in this, and you could probably come up with several more if someone asked you to. but at the end of the day, none of those objections actually matter. you know they're superficial, compared to that massive glaring truth - you have dug a hole for yourself so deep there's no way to get out of it on your own, you've pushed away absolutely everyone who could try and help you, and there's only one person who's stubborn enough and loves you enough to come anyway

#gravity falls #the book of bill #stanford pines #stanley pines #ford pines #stan pines

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urfavoritemistake · 3 months ago

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fiddleford mcgucket and things that go bump in the night

i understand why people like to explore scenarios in art/fic where fiddleford is aware of bill and has face-offs with him while he's in ford's body, or he works with stanley to try and get ford back post-portal incident, but to me personally? nothing beats the canon scenario where he is left entirely in the dark. because it's so horrifying.

you know the principle of horror that the monster is much scarier when it stays in the shadows than when it's revealed, usually towards the end of a story, because until then, it's left to the depths of your imagination to fill in the blanks? fiddleford chooses to not investigate those shadows, and even further enshrouds what he fears in darkness, because he's too scared of what he might uncover. he's the child who refuses to check for the monster under the bed and instead stays awake all night under the covers frozen in terror. that's the appeal of his character to me.

canonically, he doesn't know bill or stan exist. because ford refused to even trust his best friend with the knowledge of his muse, or anything about his past, even the fact that he has a twin. he actively hides childhood photos of him and stan from fiddleford. presumably, in college he kept all their conversations strictly to their interests and passions.

can you blame fiddleford for becoming infatuated with the guy? a talented, bright, yet mysterious individual. he probably longed to slowly break down those walls and gain his trust, learn more about this man who has made an effort to be unknowable. happily offered up stories of his own life back in tennessee, his family and aspirations, and prayed one day ford would do a little of the same. but he respected him too much to pry.

and then, when they reunite, he slowly notices his dear friend acts a little Off sometimes. unnatural. but how well does he really know him anyway? surely he speculates about the life ford is hiding from him, people he may be talking to, mental afflictions he may have, but he can't pin down anything due to how left in the dark he is, and his own fear of asking too many questions and overstepping boundaries. so he can only suspect. ultimately all he knows is there is some sort of evil afoot, and the machine him and ford are building will bring it about. all he has to go off of is his calculations and a vague dread.

until he starts making the choice to forget, which may be a little easier since there's already so much he knows he doesn't know. what's the harm in losing a bit more, especially stuff that is causing him pain?

and so he starts to lose his mind in turn, and he can feel it as it's happening. he knows he can't trust his deteriorating memories. but he can't stop because of the mechanisms of addiction.

and maybe one day, before everything is entirely gone, he's made aware that stanford pines, his ex-friend, has converted his lab into a tourist attraction. not one fiddleford can afford to attend with his increasing reliance on dumpster diving and beggaring to get by, mind you. but perhaps he gets a glance at the proprietor, this man claiming to be stanford pines, and feels that old sense of wrongness in his gut.

he's pretty sure that's ford's face, but something's off about it. and his hands. something's wrong with his hands. didn't ford have something with his hands? fiddleford didn't notice it at first in college until ford pointed it out because he's mighty insecure about it, but he's forgotten what it was. but honestly, how much of his own fragmented memories can he even trust?

he feels a shiver down his spine. perhaps it's best to forget about stanford pines altogether.

#gravity falls #fiddleford mcgucket #fiddauthor #fordsquared #fiddleauthor #i forgot they have so many ship names lol #anyway it's very interesting that ford is boundlessly curious about things that scare the average person to the point of recklessness #while utterly uninterested in other people or divulging about his personal life #while fidds is near opposite #when they got complimentary tragic flaws <33 billford also slaps in this respect but ive yapped plenty about that haha #so now you get a rare dotty fiddauthor post #dottypost #again to be clear no hate to alternative fanon! this fandom is all about What Ifs after all

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heliads · 2 years ago

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whilst requests are open I have an idea to put forth after years of us discussing this man. Harry Hook x reader based on 'the way I loved you' by taylor swift. Childhood friends to lovers, to strangers to lovers again mayhaps? idk babes. Love you though, I hope your requests don't get out of hand again so you can stay stress-free!

eva i love you for sending this in, please let me talk about harry hook. he's insane and i cannot get enough of him

masterlist

You are lying on your bed in a dorm room in Auradon Prep, and if you close your eyes, you can almost convince yourself that you’re somewhere else entirely. Your roommate hung a lantern in the window, and with the glass pane cracked halfway, the light sways back and forth on the ceiling, painting shifting golden silhouettes on the perfectly painted ceiling. If you let the present world fade into the corners of your consciousness, you can pretend there are flaws in the endless pristine magnificence. You could even pretend that you aren’t on the continent at all.

No daughter of a princess should ever be anywhere but in Auradon. That’s the way it should have been, but you ran the second you got the chance and ended up amongst criminals and sons of thieves instead of with other prettily polished girls. Is it a terrible thing to admit that you miss it more than anything?

You shouldn’t, that’s the worst part. You left them willingly. As time passes, though, you’re starting to think that what you thought was one great fight with the so-called lowlifes of this world might have been the greatest time of your life. It’s like fording a raging river; while you’re in the thick of the waves, you think you might drown, but when you’re safe on the dry shore again, all you can think of is the coolness of the water, how the flood had sparkled like a thousand sapphires.

You shut your eyes and then you’re back again, just a kid, happier than you’ve ever been and twice as free. It had been easy to leave, actually, easier than it should have been. In your family, there were enough siblings and cousins and relatives that just one girl could go unnoticed. It’s not that Ariel intentionally tried to blur all of her daughters together in her memory, but it couldn’t be helped. She was one of seven daughters, and you were one of many as well. It wasn’t her fault, no, but it was your excuse anyway.

It turns out that nobody bats their eyes at a mermaid’s daughter when she’s running headlong towards the surf. You dove into the waves and came up to shore miles away. Your mother was terrified of losing any one of her children to the endless sea just as her father lost her to land, so none of you were allowed to stray that close to the beach. Of course you would see how far you could go the second you were unsupervised. Of course you would push the limits just to learn where you would break.

You ended up scaring the daylights out of a boy in a small sailing craft not far from the limits of the Isle of the Lost. You hadn’t meant to go that far, but you were giddy with the feeling of doing something wrong and he was trying to escape as well. He’d offered for you to hitch a ride with him so long as the wind was good. You thought that suited you well enough, so you took the hand he gave you and listened when he introduced himself as Harry Hook.

He said his name the same way you did, emphasis on the first name and not the last. It’s the exact opposite way any child of a prince or princess does, and you think that might have been why you liked him from the start. The sun shone overhead, and you talked to him about running away and taking to the sea and all the things you wanted to do if you just had time.

Neither of you wanted to leave, not really, but of course all good things have to come to an end at some point. You watched the sun sink lower and lower in the sky with all the dread of a doomed man going to the gallows. You must have looked seriously unhappy, because you remember Harry laughing and saying that you could meet him tomorrow, if you wanted. You wanted that more than anything, as it turned out, so you eagerly agreed.

Harry took you as far as he could towards Auradon again, and watched as you dove into the water. You can still remember how he’d watched you go, the way his eyes had tracked the water as if he could look at you forever, even after you disappeared from view. He stayed there for a long time before finally forcing his ship to turn around again. You’d know; you stayed there on the ocean floor watching him back until he was gone.

The next day, you slipped away to meet him again, and the next day, and the next. When you were caught trying to go out to the sea sometime in the second month, you fought until you could find a suitable excuse. Your mother was perfectly fine to let you go to some private school by the coast, it would mean one less child to keep track of. The papers were signed and agreements made before you could so much as blink.

You, of course, never went to that school. Instead, you showed up on Harry’s ship just like usual and told him that you wouldn’t be going back. Harry had been talking about a friend of his, Uma, and how she was forming a crew of her own larger pirate ship. You wanted in, and he couldn’t be more delighted to take you home.

You think you replayed the memory of him introducing you to Uma about a thousand times over in your head, and you’ll do it again tonight. The slats of the dock had been slippery under your feet, but you knew that so long as he was by your side, you would never once fall. Uma had looked at you questioningly, blue-green hair cascading down her shoulders, but Harry had hardly been able to tear his eyes away from you.

“This is Y/N,” he’d said, “she’s my friend.” He’d imbued the word with all the hope and grief and joy you could ever possibly attach to such an idea. Harry smiled as he said it, took your hand, let his eyes open comically wide so you’d know he was just joking when he mentioned that he’d jump overboard if Uma didn’t take you on.

Luckily for him, Uma had no problems with you. She saw something in you, the same sort of restless troublemaking spirit the rest of them had in spades. Before you knew it, you were quite literally learning the ropes of how to help out on Uma’s ship.

From there on out, everything was perfect. You watched the sun rise and set from the deck of a ship you could call home. When the weather was good, you spent all night and day out in the grasp of the world, and when the storms raged on, you hid belowdecks with the best friends you’d ever had. They wanted you, not your mother in a younger form, but you. Just you. It was wonderful.

It shouldn’t have come as a surprise that you would end up falling in love with Harry. You were hurtling towards that fate as fast as you could, running and sprinting towards the inevitability of it all. No one compared. No one had half as much influence over you as him. And, when he finally managed to tell you how he felt, you thought you might be able to take over the entire world with the sheer force thrumming through your veins.

Perhaps you should have taken that as a warning. The universe doesn’t care much for happy endings, you’ve learned, even for its fairytale heroes. Princesses grow old and fade into obscurity. Princes forget how to save the day. Villains live out their days with fantastic dreams that will never be achieved. You learn how to deal with adequacy, and pretend that it is enough for you.

You loved Harry because he was wild, your untamed, brilliant boy, but then you hated him for it, too. Just once, you wanted to walk into a room and know what he was going to say before he said it. Every word from his mouth was a dagger in your chest. Some days, he was a hopeless romantic, others, he was mad and uncontrollable. He never hurt you, but at least the pain of a blow would be something you could depend on and understand.

Your mother tried to find you about a year or two after you took to the sea, and you used that as your excuse to break up with him. Harry found out you would be returning to Auradon at the exact same time as the rest of the crew. You think he might hate you for it still. You think he would have reason to hate you for a lot, actually, most importantly that you were never quite enough to match him.

So you slipped away from the ship with the worst kind of goodbye, one that you did not mean, and you never looked back. You greeted your mother and agreed when she said that it was time you took up your studies at Auradon Prep. You joined the endless number of would-be princesses and princes and pretended that it was all you had ever needed in life. If you woke up sometimes with the sound of waves crashing in your ears, or felt the steady rock of a ship beneath your feet as you dreamt, you ignored it. Such illusions only belong to the past, and they will never be yours again.

You still have a jacket of his in the corner of your room; you brought it all the way over here, anywhere you go. You never had the heart to give it back. You don’t know that you could if you tried. It still smells like saltwater and laughter and sun-bleached him, and you have absolutely no idea what you will do when that familiar scent fades.

Still, you weren’t able to completely erase his influence on you. Children of villains arrived at Auradon Prep, and instead of running away from them, you befriended them as quickly as you could. Mal thinks like you do, her and the rest. You laugh like them– not quite as polite as you should be, but loud and beautiful and real. You hang out with them all the time and, when they talk about how much they wish they were back on the Isle of the Lost, you lie to yourself that you do not agree.

You never told them the full scope of your exploits, but they know part of it, enough that one day Mal knocks at your door and tells you that she needs your help on a pirate ship. She needs to get something from the Isle of the Lost, a mysterious ingredient for a spell, but they have to keep it a secret so they can’t use the bridge. The next best option, then, is to sail. It’s not a far destination, so it would work.

A thousand memories of sun and surf flash through your head, and you find yourself agreeing before Mal can so much as finish trying to convince you to go along with her plan.

Mal blinks in surprise. “Really? You’re sure? I thought you would have mixed feelings about that time in your life.”

You breathe out slowly, trying to calm yourself. “Certain things scare me more than others.” Certain people, that is.

Mal winces as she leads you out of your dorm and back into the hallway. “Actually, we might have a problem with that.”

You frown. “What do you mean?”

Mal casts you a nervous glance. “Before I continue, remember that you already agreed. I’m not letting you leave now.”

You laugh. “I’m starting to get worried. No, Mal, I’m not backing out. Just tell me already.”

Mal holds up her hands in mock surrender. “Okay, okay. Never doubted you for a second. It’s just, well, we don’t have a ship at our disposal, obviously, so we’re borrowing one from Uma.”

You shrug. “I have no problem with that. Uma’s great.”

“Yeah,” Mal says, drawing out her syllables in an attempt to buy herself time, “but she insisted on having a skeleton crew present. You know, to make sure we wouldn’t run aground or something like that. That includes her first mate.”

Your head snaps up. “Harry’s going to be there?”

You can feel Mal’s gaze on you, but you refuse to look at her. Instead, you’re scanning the hallway, every door you pass, sure that he’s going to be waiting for you, leaning casually against a wall or peering out of a window or somewhere you could find if you just looked hard enough.

“He is,” Mal confirms, “is that going to be an issue?”

Yes. “No, I’ll be fine.”

You can’t really tell if Mal believes you or not, but then you’re rounding the corner and the rest of the VKs are in front of you, and the conversation must be dropped as Mal explains her plan. You’re going to join the four of them and Uma’s guys in piloting the ship over to the Isle of the Lost, where you’ll search for a talisman hidden somewhere on the island. Once the talisman is secured, you’ll head back. Easy as that.

Mal leads your group to a boathouse on the southern part of the shore. You take up a position in a corner of the room, hidden by the shadows. You suppose that’s why the pirates don’t see you immediately when they come in a matter of minutes later. You suppose you chose that place on purpose so you could get a good look at Harry without him seeing you.

He looks just the same. You don’t know why you thought he would change, that he would have to look different to explain how different you feel, but he’s the same. It makes a soft smile rise to your lips at the same time as the weight of all your memories pierces you through the heart.

Uma’s talking to Mal, doubt lacing her every word. “I hope you have a good idea of how to run a ship, because I don’t think any of your friends have the slightest clue what to do on the sea. That’s my territory, in case you forgot.”

“I know,” Mal says, temper just as strong as always, “that’s why I brought a friend.”

Harry arches a brow. “What friend?”

“That would be me,” you say, and step out of the shadows to face him.

For a moment, you swear that time stands still. Harry’s breath catches in his chest as he looks at you for the first time in months. He has never been one to show off weakness, always laughing off injury or claiming not to feel pain, but in this instant, you can see the shock lancing through his eyes, wracking his frame until he has no choice but to stand there and stare.

Uma breaks the silence, wrapping an arm around your shoulders with a grin. “Y/N, good to see you! I take it back, Mal. Y/N could captain a fleet of ships with her eyes closed.”

It’s easy, after that, to pull yourself together. Uma’s friendship is something familiar, a rock you can stand on. “I appreciate your confidence,” you reply, “good to see you too, by the way.”

“Of course,” Uma says dismissively, then adds somewhat unnecessarily, “Hey, Harry, look who it is!”

Harry swallows hard when Uma addresses him, tries to pretend he’s just like normal. “Yeah, I saw. Hey, Y/N.”

“Hey yourself,” you say quietly.

Evie looks at you nervously, then quickly speaks up. “So, should we get to the ship? We only have so much time before people start looking for us.”

Uma rolls her eyes. “Yeah, yeah, you guys are too popular, I get it. Ship’s docked outside.”

Harry takes this as his excuse to bolt out, and you watch him go with wide eyes. Evie heads over to you as soon as everyone’s attention is off you again. “Hey, is everything alright?”

“Perfectly fine,” you whisper back through gritted teeth. Of course it is a lie. You couldn’t be more affected by this.

You avoid Harry the entire duration of the trip over to the Isle of the Lost. It’s difficult, especially when you push off from the shore and the wind is on your face again and everything is just like you remember. You tug a few lines into place, tie them down with the knots he taught you, and race to the bow as soon as you’re free.

You forgot just how wonderful it is to sail. You laugh delightedly as the ship picks up speed, skipping over the waves as the wind snaps the sails almost to bursting. This close to the surface of the water, you can’t hear anything, but you sense something anyway, and that’s how you know to lean back up and look to your side to see Harry standing there, smiling as he takes in the sight of you.

Your laugh dries up in a moment and you feel frozen there, trapped in this moment with him. Someone calls your name a second later and you’re able to spirit away to safety, but you can still feel his gaze burning like a brand into your back every moment until the ship docks at the Isle.

Mal announces that you’ll be splitting up in pairs so you can properly canvas the island for the talisman. Before you can look at her or Evie, Uma suggests that you and Harry work together, and the rest are already partitioned into pairs before you can fight it.

Fine, then. You’re certain he’s put her up to this, but you won’t give him a scene if he wants it. Instead, you march resolutely towards your assigned location, and pretend that you’re just really invested in finding the talisman so you can’t hear him when he tries to talk to you.

Eventually, Harry has enough and puts his hand on your arm, trying to get your attention. You spin back around by reflex, dagger in hand and held to his throat before Harry can get so much of a word out. The Isle has always brought out a different part of you, more of a villain than any princess’ daughter.

Instead of looking afraid, Harry just laughs. Usually, this is the time at which you’d join in, but you narrow your eyes and hold strong.

“Easy, sweetheart,” he says when he’s finally able to get his laughter under control, “I don’t think your friends would like it very much if you killed someone on your little vacation to the island.”

You glare at him. “We’re not friends anymore, sweetheart, or have you forgotten that already?”

“When your knife is to my throat? Couldn’t forget that if I tried. Out of curiosity, why are we enemies again? I seem to remember you liking me very well just a couple of months ago.” Harry says, reaching up to tap your forearm where you still hold your blade.

You pull your dagger away but stand there still, thrumming with the urge to run. “We’re too different. You’re a villain, and I’m a perfect angel, obviously.”

Harry grins. “What, just because you’re the daughter of a princess? You’ve never let that come in between us before. You’re not Ariel, you’re Y/N, and I have always loved that about you.” Something like doubt flickers across his face. “Is that why you left? You thought you had to become more like her?”

You glance away from him, suddenly unable to look him in the eyes. “I left because I had to. We weren’t working out.”

“Why not?” Harry asks, and suddenly he’s the one in control now, he’s the one stepping forward until your back hits the wall and you have nowhere to run, “What was so wrong with us, Y/N?”

Your hands are shaking. Harry takes the knife from you, carefully sliding it back in the holster on your side. His hands linger there a second longer, and when he finally takes them away, you can’t tell if you’re glad of it or deeply unhappy that you can no longer feel him.

“We could never work,” you insist.

“Why not?” He replies, “Show me we could never work. Prove me wrong.”

Harry Hook has always been somewhat of an enigma to you, just as unpredictable as the sea that both of you love, but somehow you know it’s coming when Harry leans forward and kisses you. For a moment, you consider pushing him away, and then you realize that you do not hate this, not him, not in the slightest, not at all.

Surrender is not the worst thing in the world. Sometimes it’s like the release of a sail to the wind, the acceptance that even though you let a person go, they will always come back to you. You surrender the last of your inhibitions and you kiss him back. It is everything you missed, the fighting and the laughing, the good times and the bad all in one. It is all that you love about him and more, what you didn’t realize you held most dear until you were gone.

Harry breathes quietly against your lips and you breathe back, one small circle of in and out and together. He grins, says, was that really so bad? And you laugh and tell him to shut up, so he does, but only by kissing you again. The island can wait, the talisman and the life waiting back for you at school. You have your boy back, and you could not care about anything else.

requested by @thatfangirl42, i hope you enjoy!

disney tag list: @rogueanschel, @lovesanimals0000, @/thatfangirl42, @amortensie

#harry hook #harry hook imagines #harry hook x reader #harry hook oneshot #descendants #descendants imagines #descendants x reader #descendants oneshot #disney #disney imagines #disney x reader #disney oneshot #descendants harry #descendants harry imagines #descendants harry x reader #descendants harry oneshot

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localcanadiancreature62 · 4 months ago

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My Thoughts on Fiddlestan

Okay you people are literally all or nothing with these mfs,like it's either all gut wretching angst or all tooth rotting fluff. So i raise you,"what if it was both?" aka i made them have a good time but they also have Issues ✨. @misteria247 you might wanna see this one cuz i know you love Fiddlestan lol.

So first things first,their first meeting. They would meet soon after the portal incident when Fidds' sanity is slowly starting to slip from the first several usages of the memory gun and he ends up going to Ford's house after having a vague familiarity with the place as well as a desire to make amends with his friend while he still remembers him,only for him to see Stan at the door. A man wearing his best friend's face. Stan lets the guy in while still keeping the ruse of pretending to be his brother after he just faked his death,trying his hardest to pretend that he knows what Fidds is talking about regarding the portal and Ford's time in college.

A few weeks pass,and Fidds get the slight suspicion that he's not actually talking to Ford as "Ford" brushes off his science-y ramblings with "I don't understand" or "I'm too tired to hear about it maybe later",when he knew that the real Ford would know exactly what he's talking about regarding his ideas for modern computers or Schrodinger's cat as well as gladly ramble along with him even if it's 2am at the time instead of ignoring it. He also realizes that "Ford" surprisingly knows nothing about anomalies and either tries to shoo creatures away or just beats the hell out of them rather than studying them whenever they have an encounter with gnomes or something,plus the fact that he gets jumpy whenever an eye-bat appears. Fidds is still sane enough to notice these "tells" and so he confronts the man about it despite Stan already being nervous about not being able to keep up the act. Stan decides to come clean after the southern man literally backed him into a corner while interrogating him about who he is and where the real Stanford is,he explains the truth about Ford's disappearance and that he's trying to fix the portal while having no idea about how his brother's science mumbo jumbo works. Fidds' expression of anger and fear changes into guilt sympathy and even intrigue as he regrets trying to aggressively gouge the man for answers,when the grifter turned out to care about Ford all along instead of selfishly stealing his life for success. He wondered about Stan's relation to Ford and the man explains that he's Ford's twin brother and that they had a rough patch in their brotherly relationship which lead to this whole mess. Fidds then offers to help fix the portal since he's the one who co built it and Stan couldn't be more than happy,although with the condition of no more lies as that impersonation fiasco genuinely scared him which Stan agrees to. They didn't get along at first with Stan's stubborn personality and tendency to tease others at random while Fidds was just really tired and he wanted to get Ford back so that he can get out of this whole mess,but they managed.

Throughout the building of the portal,the two begin to bond regarding their history with Ford and how the man inadvertently screwed them over with his ego. Then talking about how they always felt inferior in comparison to everyone else (Stan with Ford,Fidds with his rough and tumble ranch family who roughhoused constantly while he was a scrawny nerd),discovering that they weren't so different as they thought. Stan ends up taking his partnership with Fiddleford more seriously as he soon realizes that they only have each other,while Fidds starts to humor Stan's teasing and occasional goofing off since he doesn't have anyone else to turn to with Emma may and Tate still refusing contact from him ever since the divorce (just so that Fidds wouldn't yknow. cheat on his wife). They soon become friends who often look out for each other with Stan trying to stop Fidds from overworking himself while Fidds teaches Stan about quantum physics as he tries really hard to understand despite being the "dumb" twin.

Fidds' use of the memory gun becomes less frequent as he didn't have a reason to blast himself with it anymore due to finally having someone that understands his troubles with Ford and the darn triangle feller,no longer feeling as though he had to forget everything as he had someone to talk to about all of this (i mean in canon he wouldn't never went insane if Ford fucking talked to him and explained why he's still going through with the portal with his desperate desire for approval). Stan sees his steadfast love and support be appreciated by someone besides his ungrateful brother,while Fidds sees his unwavering loyalty and handmade gifts be cherished by someone who cares rather than ignored by his egotistical friend.

The fact that the two found someone who cared even when they have their own troubles means a lot to them,this steadfast love and concern was what made Fidds and Stan slowly fall for each other. Stan finally found someone who appreciates him and sees him as worthy even with his many mistakes or occasional stupidity while Fidds finally found someone who won't waste his loyalty and kindness in favor of their own selfish wishes (*cough* Ford *cough*). They're finally happy,after dealing with so much pain. They had their happy ending,or did they? 😏.

While they WERE in a healthy and loving relationship,things weren't all sunshine and rainbows. Stan outright refuses to talk about his problems in fear of being a burden to his nerd plus the emotional walls he put up were too strong even when he tries to be open toward the southern man which always ends in him not wanting to talk about it,meanwhile Fidds opts to metaphorically run away from his issues by using the memory gun to forget every argument and misunderstanding he had with the drifter (which were mostly caused by the memory gun in the first place). Whenever they have a problem with something that the other does that isn't related to the portal,they don't set boundaries they don't talk about it they don't confront the other about it,they do NOTHING.

Fidds slowly starts to go insane again as he starts forgetting about Stan at times with his use of the memory gun whenever they have an argument which is a LOT of arguments as every couple doesn't always agree with each other,he lashes out and has a paranoia episode over either imagining Stan being a stranger that wants to hurt him or him being Ford that wants to take revenge on him for quitting the project which obviously upsets the drifter but he doesn't do anything about it as he cannot afford to lose the one thing he has left because of his dumb problems (little does he know,is that he's already doing it. he's already losing Fidds cuz of his issues). Stan on the other hand,starts treating Fiddleford with the same codependency that he gave Ford with him expecting the hillbilly to always be there for him and always put HIS interests at heart despite the man having his own wants and needs with his Mcgucket Labs project. Thus Fidds is being taken for granted again while Stan is confused and angry over why this hick is ignoring him and trying to abandon him like Ford did (Stanley your brother issues are showing).

It only gets worse in the moments culminating to Fidds' insanity,where Stan doesn't even know who his hillbilly partner anymore while Fidds is completely unaware of the torment he's putting Stan through with his erratic behavior and amnesiac ramblings. Stan was there for the tapes,he was behind the camera with every transition as the southern man told him it was a little experiment regarding the memory gun and he believed that at first only to soon realize that Fidds was literally frying his own brain with that gun after reading his notes about the electricity that erases the memories plus the side effects of prolonged use. By the time Fidds had that car crash,he quit the project again and stopped seeing Stan as he left the drifter alone to fix the portal by himself albeit with more knowledge of how it works due to the various quantum mechanics lessons the man drilled into him. He just needed to figure out the elaborate codes to actually activate it. Stan missed Fidds as he was guilty about their last interaction being an argument about the memory gun and even encountered him but with a new red robe while the man went on and on about some memory cult,but he knew that the man is too far gone for him to make amends with.

Stan then ended up using Fidds' Mcgucket Labs money to support himself but then he realized that it won't be enough as that business was just a start up gig that didn't had the chance to become successful due to the portal and the memory gun,so he had to come up with another way to survive all alone. Then he went to the Dusk 2 Dawn convenience store and saw that everyone was interested in Ford's weird mad scientist house,taking everyone there as he saw that people's interest in the freaky things in that house would make great revenue for him. The Mystery Shack (originally the Murder Hut) was born,and Stan had finally left his life of being a miserable grifter behind. However.. he still saw his Fiddleford rummage in the trash or make killer robots in the news sometimes. He yearns for what could've been yet he shakes his head as he knew what he had with the nerd was currently unsalvageable in his current insane state.

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darlingdaisyfarm · 2 months ago

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what brothers are made of

a/n: heyy angels this is my first try at a fic without a reader! just exploring the brothers’ dynamic and their complicated relationship, hope you like the angst<3

tags: Stan and Ford, pre portal, angst

Ford’s the one who called. Ford’s the one who reached out with that damn postcard, asking for Stan’s help, and god, Stan wanted to believe. wanted to think that things could be different this time. maybe Ford really did need him, maybe this wasn’t another one of his schemes, his obsession with things that were so far beyond Stan that it made him dizzy just thinking about it.

but to his disappointment, when he gets here, when he stands face to face with his brother, all he sees is cold, logical desperation that makes him want to vomit. its the same thing that’s always been there, however, more paranoid than ever. Ford can’t stop himself from being consumed by his own mind and that’s exactly what’s gotten him here, hasn’t it?

Stanley wants to scream, wants to shake Ford, make him see.

“responsibility? oh, that’s funny, coming from the guy who built a goddamn death machine in his basement and called me up to clean up his mess!”

“you don’t know what you’re talking about! this isn’t a ‘mess,’ Stanley. this is—”

“it’s bullshit!” Stan pulls the crumpled postcard from his pocket and flings it to the ground. “you didn’t call me here because you care about me. you never cared about me, sixer. you called me because you needed someone to hold your precious hand while you play god!”

“you’re so goddamn selfish,” Ford spits, shoving Stan toward the door. “you can’t stand the idea that i might actually accomplish something, can you?“

“fuck you, just fuck you! you think you’re better than me? you think this— this thing makes you better?”

“get out,” Ford says coldly, trying to hold his emotions. because that’s what Ford learned growing up, right? keep your feelings hidden. be the smart one, the quiet one. and when you need to, just get out of the room before you say something that can never be taken back. control, control, control.

because if he lets go, if he really opens up, he’ll have to confront everything. all of it. the hurt, the betrayal, the loneliness, the failure, his fears. and that’s a door Ford doesn’t want to open.

but if he did, Stan would see. Stanley would see how much Ford is drowning in his own guilt and fears, his desperation to fix things that can’t be fixed. Stan would see how badly Ford needs him, how much he needs them not as broken rivalry siblings they’ve become, but as the two kids they used to be, throwing their fists at the world together.

if Ford could let it out, he’d tell Stan how scared he’s been, he’d ask him to hug him and would cry into his shoulder. he’d tell him how every night he lies awake, torturing himself with the thought that maybe it was him, his own selfishness that led them to this. if he told Stan the truth, about Bill, he might just collapse under the weight of all the things he’s kept bottled up inside.

when Ford says "get out," what he's really saying is, "I don't know how to talk about this. I don't know how to say I need you, Stanley. I don’t know how to explain that the world I’ve built, all this knowledge I’ve gained, it all turned against me."

"you don’t mean that," Stanley says quietly. “i know you, Stanford. better than anyone. and i know that look in your eyes, you’re scared shitless. you don’t have a clue what you’re doing and instead of admitting it, you’re pushing me away. same as always."

the fight isn’t about the damn portal or journals, it never really was. it was never about science or alternate dimensions or any of the insane plans Ford dreamed up. it’s about them, about that gulf between them that’s grown so wide that Ford doesn’t even know where to begin. and when Stan gets too close, too loud, too angry, Ford pulls away because it’s a defense mechanism. his mind knows that if Stan touches that nerve, if Stan demands the truth, Ford will break. and he can’t let that happen.

when Ford was just a kid, staring out of their bedroom window, dreaming of galaxies and stars, their dad would look at him with proud eyes behind these glasses.

and the way their father looked at Stan, like a problem, that look burned into Stan’s soul. he pushed Stanley out of the house. and now even his own brother was doing the same thing. Stan hadn’t realised how much he still carried that hurt. hadn’t realised how much it still stung.

but Ford wasn’t his dad, he wasn’t the one who pushed Stan down, who told him he wasn’t worth anything. but then why when he looks at his twin, he sees Filbrick? because maybe, in the back of his mind, he is still that little boy, who was rejected and discarded. it’s not Ford, it’s their dad all over again. it’s the front door slamming shut in front of his face when Stan was too young.

you can’t do this to me. you can’t push me away like he did.

“you think you’re so fucking smart, but you don’t get it, do you? you don’t have to do this alone. you don’t have to carry all of this by yourself. but no, you’re too goddamn proud to let anyone in.”

Stanley wants to laugh, but it’s not funny, it’s fucking sad because Ford’s voice isn’t even loud or angry, not like their dad’s had been. Ford’s tone is quiet, restrained, controlled. and somehow that makes it worse.

"what did I say, Stan Pines? keep your stance low. aim for the gut; it’s the easiest target."

maybe that’s why he fought. because this wasn’t about Ford trying to save the world, this was about Ford pushing Stan away again, like their dad did years ago. pushing him out when he was scared, when he needed Ford the most.

Stan fights like their dad taught him. Stan’s punch lands and it hurts more than it should, not because of the impact, but because of the look in Ford’s paranoid eyes. shock, betrayal, but not anger. no, Ford’s not angry. he’s just hurt and maybe scared. and Stan hates that look, hates that he put it there.

Stan wasn’t trying to win in this fight, not like in the old days, when their dad had taken him to boxing gym to teach him a lesson because there Stan fought for respect. for himself. he fought to make sure he wasn’t just another screw up, another worthless kid in his dad’s eyes. boxing was a way to prove he wasn’t weak. and it worked. for a while.

Stan hates it. he hates that they’re here, yelling at each other like they’re still kids, fighting over who got the top bunk or who spilled milk on ma’s favorite tablecloth.

it’s funny in a way, how much this feels like when they were kids. when Ford would retreat into himself, hiding behind his books, while Stanley tried to pull him out to make him see the world the way Stan did.

but the world Ford sees isn’t the same as Stan’s. it never has been. Ford sees logic, patterns, equations and stars. Stan sees chaos, opportunity, feelings and family. they’re opposites, two sides of the same coin, and no matter how hard they try, they just can’t seem to meet in the middle.

Ford’s shove sends Stan stumbling backward, out the door, into the snow and that's when everything collapses under the onslaught of cold, harsh reality. It’s not the physical shock Stan experiences or the pain of hitting the snow-covered ground. because Stan is used to feel physical pain.

it’s realisation.

Ford’s silhouette appears in the doorway, breathing heavily, before he slams it shut.

the snow keeps falling, covering Stan like a blanket, the same way their mother sheltered him. his blood stains the ground beneath him, but he doesn’t move because he can’t. the fight’s gone out of him, leaving only exhaustion and a hollow ache where his anger used to be.

she’s there, in the warmth of his memories, her soft hands cupping his cheeks, brushing away tears. “oh, my sweet boys,” her voice always sounded like a lullaby. “you’ll always have each other, no matter what.”

Stanley remembers the way she’d pull them close, wrapping her arms around both of them, protecting her kids from the world. at first Ford would squirm, pretending he was too old for hugs, but Stan always clung tight, burying his face in her apron.

“look after each other, boys, promise me, you’ll always look after each other.”

Stan had promised. but promises are funny things.

they’re easy to make when you’re young and hopeful, when the world hasn’t yet shown you how cruel it can be. they’re much harder to keep when everything falls apart.

a sob tears its way out of his chest and Stan lets it. he lets the snow take him, lets himself lay there like that, because he thinks he deserves this.

Ford’s face flashes in his mind, not angered face he just fought, but the younger one. the one who used to sneak into his bed at night, scared of thunderstorms. the one who used to build sandcastles with him at the beach, the one who always supported him

“i’m sorry, ma, i tried. i really tried.”

the snow keeps falling and Stan closes his eyes.

#gravity falls #gravity falls fanfiction #gravity falls fanfic #young stan pines #grunkle stan #a tale of two stans #stanford pines #ford pines #grunkle ford #stan and ford #gravity falls stanford #gravity falls headcanons

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pierogi-potwater · 6 months ago

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A rambling defence of the pines twins

(Part 1)

I’ve been thinking about them all day. I basically want to psychoanalyse them all a bit and attempt to explain why I think, they think the way they do.

Though this is a defence of the characters, they are not perfect people! I’m not trying to say they have done no wrong or haven’t hurt people because they have. I just like saying why I think they did what they did. All their choices make sense from their perspective and I’m just saying why I don’t think they are ‘terrible selfish people’.

Some of this might be stealing insights from other people…sorry y’all have great thoughts and I’ll mention any instance where a thought isn’t fully original because I miss some really obvious stuff and I couldn’t have made these conclusions without this great community!!! Please, please, please provide your own thoughts I love having discussions with people! Like if I missed anything or you disagree with anything please say!

Spoilers for the show, the book of Bill, lost legends and journal 3 but I won’t be showing an screenshots. I should also mention, all quotes are from memory and I haven’t fully read TBOB or Journal 3 so apologies if I get any info wrong!

This is my first text post so apologies for any incoherence or poor formatting/grammar.

So! Starting with…

Stanley Pines

Stan! This guy: I love him! (Quick edit! I was hesitant to call Stan and Ford co dependant because that’s a medicalised term and they were kids/ teens but ig Bill already pointed that out! And calling out Fords PTSD? Dang…)

Going straight in, Stan and Ford were lonely kids, they only really had each other growing up so that ended up with them becoming somewhat reliant on each other. They’re a dynamic duo and as kids their dynamic isn’t something I’d call unhealthy (yet). They have a good complementarity of brains and punches; they are shown to stick up for, and support, one another. When Stan is accused of stealing his father’s watch: Ford goes out of his way to disprove the accusation, with his brother by his side. Even when presented with evidence for Stan stealing the watch, Ford gives his brother the benefit of the doubt and hears out his brother’s explanation that it was an accident and he intended to give the watch back as a Father’s Day gift but was scared of his father’s reaction to the broken case. He was just trying to do a nice thing and it backfired to make him look worse than he intended.

This leads me to how Stan was perceived as a kid, as a troublemaker. His father, being a typical man in the 60’s didn’t really outwardly express any affection towards the boys. All mention of care is normally an assumption or through actions. Of course healthy family dynamics don’t require constant praise and verbal declarations of love. Stan’s dad showed his care for his kid through enrolling him in boxing classes. That being said, the boys clearly didn’t have a good dynamic with their dad. Stan is assumed to be a naughty child and isn’t shown any benefit of the doubt. It isn’t indicated that he’ll ever be seen as anything but a trouble maker. So of course he doesn’t try to be anything else. He cheats off his brother academically and his whole future plan is reliant upon his bother. His future plan, I should also add, doesn’t include trouble making. He hopes to be seen as an adventurer and in this, is still rejecting the deterministic fate of being a huckster and fraud. He thinks needs his brother for this identity though. He is constantly compared to his brother in a degrading manner and isn’t encouraged to find his own niche as it is assumed that he will automatically choose criminality. His brother on the other hand is a genius that can do basically anything he wants in the future. He has a large choice of things he’d be smart enough to do and chose to specialise in science. Stanley has cemented his future success as needing his brother, but his brother so clearly doesn’t need him. And so in an accident while letting out his frustration, slams the table the perpetual motion machine is on and breaks it. The same embarrassment and shame stopping him from confessing to the broken watch case: once again stops him from telling Ford about the broken machine. Telling him about the broken machine could have allowed him to fix it and thus get into that dream school but he couldn’t bring himself to. Either because he’d be accused of doing it purposefully to sabotage his brother or because a shameful part of him wanted to sabotage his brother so he could in some way prove his brother needed him too. To secure a safe future for himself with the only person that has unconditionally loved and trusted him.

Of course that’s not what happened. It’s been pointed out that Stan’s current obsession with money and swindling people is because of his dad disowning him saying ‘only come back once you’ve made millions.’ and so, he hoards money. But, I’d also add the fact that peoples perception of him already being cunning and a fraud definitely added to this. His only other role model aside from his brother was probably his parents ( famously con people). Their dad only viewed the two of them as pawns out of their current financial position [as people have pointed out before]. His mother cared about him though which is sweet (and there’s a high chance that she probably didn’t have much say in Stanley being disowned). Stan still subconsciously wanted to make his parents proud and be accepted again. Another part of the current money hoarding is probably scarcity related. Stan had to live in his car and has been in debt to what I can only assume is the mafia: he likely doesn’t want that same outcome for his niece and nephew. This also might be why he considers arts and crafting his own money to be a fun bonding exercise with the kids. Stan’s dad only seeing his kids as cash cows likely plays into that as well (but it’s very clearly shown that the kids mean more than just money to him but generational habits are hard to shake).

The portal fight. Gosh, what a way to lose your twin brother… Of course after around 10 years of no contact with Ford he’d be both delighted and apprehensive seeing him again. The shame and guilt of what the machine breaking cost Ford; mixed with the hope that this meeting means that’s an event in the past; they are about to reconcile. When met with his paranoid brother pointing a crossbow at him immediately as he opens the door. The suspicion that he inadvertently caused this paranoia (much like being disowned caused Stan’s poverty) lingers. Not a great start. The brother he so hoped called for a reconciliation, and more time together, immediately tells him to go as far away from him as he can: using the same childhood dream he so desperately wanted all this time as a reference for the isolation process. The exact opposite of the dream, the reason he accidentally ruined Fords future with the fear of them being separated . The guilt once again rising. Of course Stan is upset and so tries to burn the journal so he can appease Ford as quickly as possible and try and reform a connection with him. There is no way Stan could have ever known what any of the context around why Ford wanted the journal intact but far away. He had no way of knowing what any of the equipment would or could do. So the fight begins as a confused Stanley wants to spend time with his brother but has no meaningful way to express that. A hurt Stanley that wants his brother to understand him but doesn’t have the emotional intelligence to say that. Ford accidentally brands him with a plate burning through his jacket ( image how hot it must have been for it to burn through his jacket and permanently scar him in those seconds he was pushed against it). When he accidentally activates the portal by pushing Ford into it: he freezes. How could he possibly know what to do to save him? And with the pain in his shoulder also clouding his vision.

It was pointed out to me that the carpet diem room was the same room Stanley stayed in while he worked on trying to save his brother. Ford’s bedroom. ( DEVASTATING HOW HE SECRETLY POCKETS FORD’S GLASSES AND THE ROOM WAS BOARDED UP UNTOUCHED, THE CALENDAR DATE BEING THE ONE THEY FOUGHT ON AUGHHHH). Similarly pointed out that Stan’s affinity to the statue of him was because it reminded him of his brother and the funeral touched him so much because for 30 years he’s been working on this portal to save his brother not knowing if the guy was even alive or not. Grieving the possibility of his twin brother and only friend being dead. (This killed me man :( no pun intended).

Stan learned the complicated science behind the portal despite science never being his strong suit. He worked on it for 30 years not knowing if Ford was even alive. He was willing to potentially risk the safety of gravity falls ( and the universe it was implied) to save his brother. The first thing he gets is a punch to the face as his arms are excitedly outstretched for a hug. He gets called a knucklehead (the thing his father called him after disowning him). Stan asked for a thank you.

The argument about Stan not wanting Ford and the kids spending time together for fear of their safety is pretty self explanatory in the show. The fandom has recognised that Mabel was lying about what she heard to protect Dippers notions of the author he has looked up to all summer. I didn’t think of this at first which is on me. She’s not a dumb character she just likes having fun and is a 12 year old. She gets too much hate ( ANYWAY sorry I know this isn’t about her but it was a nice character moment for her).

In weirdmageddon Stan refuses to hold Ford’s hand. While it -at first- seemed like a purely petty and idiotic thing to do, like then wasn’t the time, I can see why he did that. For Stan, the ‘thank you’ wasn’t just an acknowledgment of the work putting into saving Ford . He needed to prove he wasn’t the heartless con man people always saw him as. (Like he says in the show) .It was a promise that they weren’t going to immediately be separated again. An absolution of the guilt held for the perpetual motion machine breaking and the fight that sent Ford into the portal. In that moment he needed that ‘thank you’ because he needed to know that after the armageddon he wouldn’t be alone again. He needed reassurance that Ford wouldn’t just evict him from the house he made and the stable job he had with no brother to show for it as soon as this calamity was over. A promise that his brother still loved him.

Ford corrects his grammar after the forced thank you: proving all his fears to be correct.

He later sacrifices everything he knows to save Gravity falls, the last coherent thought he has being that of Dipper and Mabel.

Once regaining his memories, he calls the kids ‘ knuckleheads’ affectionately. A phrase used repeatedly to belittle him as an idiot he uses as a send off to the kids he loves so dearly to jokingly show how much he loves them.

Best of all, Stan and Ford finally do get to go on that adventure with the stan’o war. He gets the relationship he dreamed of with him and his brother, the genuine acknowledgment of how hard he’s worked and the genuine ‘thank you he needed.’

I love Stanley Pines!!!!!

Ok so some extra little notes unrelated to analysis :

I was going to make a single post about both the Stan twins here but I didn’t expect how much I’d actually write about Stan here! So a post each it is I assume.

A little reminder I don’t think Ford is a bad person. I’ll get into it in the next post but yeah one perspective at a time!

I somewhat wish the whole erasing his entire memory held more weight. It would have been a lot more impactful seeing it take a bit longer for his memories to come back if at all and give more meaning to his sacrifice. That being said it is a kids show and a finale ep is already heart wrenching. It also seems to be established the gun doesn’t fully erase anything so. Ehhh?

I love his interactions with the kids. Like he clearly leans towards Mabel because of how similar they are but it’s clear he loves Dipper with all his heart also just in a different way to Mabel as he hopes it better caters to him as a kid. He’s a super sweet guy but his rough exterior might make him a bit hard to like at first.

The bro code is so cute. I loved seeing Stan’s little ‘ love ya bro’ in his note to Ford. Screaming crying.

If you made it this far OMG THANK YOU!!!! I’m so normal I prommy. Feel free to DM me if you enjoy listening to more incoherent ramblings!! But yeah seriously I love making new friends so! Yeah! Thanks :^]

#gravity falls #gf #stan pines #stanford pines #gravity falls lost legends #book of bill #gravity falls spoilers #the book of bill #ramblings #character analysis #sorry it’s long

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mintyeve322 · 4 months ago

Text

for anyone concerned by my writing style on my posts that my fic(s) might have no capital letters, random capital letters, or some other issue, i just wanted to clarify i type posts and messages very different from stories.

in stories I'll use proper punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and grammar. (at least to the best of my ability) i just couldn't give two shits about that stuff while I'm rambling here.

just a warning or heads up, haha.

anyway, so that we're on topic, fiddlestan time below the cut.

I think their relationship is pretty quick to take off but slow to be official. i feel like Stan is so starved for affection that she's scared to acknowledge her feelings, especially since affection is sometimes just "platonic girl stuff". don't worry stan, overly affectionate heterosexual female friends drive me insane too.

on Fidd's part, i think she is hesitant to make things official because at first she's not sure if her feelings are genuine or if she's accidentally using Stan, but once she realized thats not it, she's still hesitant to say anything because she doesn't wanna make Stan uncomfortable if she's not right about her feelings.

Fidds is a people pleaser and unhinged as hell before she uses the memory gun, let alone afterwards, so she for sure has made or aquired some crazy shit as gifts for Stan. She for sure has made her at least one robot that malfunctioned and had to be decommissioned, she bought Stan a fish, I'll do some fish research to figure out what kind later but it has some sort of significance, to occupy the empty tank in the shack since Frilliam is lost at sea. She's probably helped Stan make exhibits and made a cryptid up that reminds her of Stan. I feel like she'd get gifts for Stan constantly, and Stan wouldn't know how to act about it because her instinct is to be skeptical of kindness but Fidds was her sister's friend and she hasn't asked Stan for anything in return and she doesn't know why.

Related to Stan's belief that affection is transactional, if Fidds ever gets nervous about the portal or if Stan keeps something from her, like why she got arrested last night or where she found a part and Fidds says she owes Fidds an explanation, Stan will shut down and probably cry in her room for an hour.

Stan is VERY worried that Fidds is gonna reveal one day that she's only there for some sort of payment or gain on her end, and if she even implies that Stan owes her something, Stan will spiral until Fidds is able to figure out the problem and apologize, even if she agrees that she does owe Fiddleford something for all she's done.

Related to this, there's probably a period of time where Fidds is working really hard, to the bone, for Stan. She hates not feeling useful and may have hit a road block she's trying to push through or something, and when Stan tells her to take a break, she interprets it as a sarcastic "just let me do it, idiot" comment and not the "please take a break im worried about you" way stan intended it, due to the fact Ford, with her one track mind, has been harsh to her in that way before.

Fidds is apologetic and swears she's almost got it she just needs more time and please don't maker her leave she promises she can do it, and Stan has to basically grab her, look her in the eyes, and tell her she just needs to take a break and come back later. Fidds says she just wants to be useful for Stan, and Stan tells her she doesn't care if she's useful, she just needs her there and burning herself out working on the project is not worth it. they have a long conversation about how even if fidds never worked on the project again Stan would still want her around and its sad and fluffy.

also a thing where stan gets frustrated and implies Fidds isnt useful and has to comfort her and insist that isn't what she meant because it genuinely wasn't what she meant agh i love miscommunication hurt/comfort

idk im rambling and i feel like we're all so busy unpacking Stan's trauma we forget that Fidds has very real trauma from her work with Ford that has plenty of hurt/comfort potential as well.

#grammar #writing #writing style #fiddlestan #gender swap fiddlestan #fiddstan #lesbian fiddlestan #fiddlestan yuri #gravity falls #just clarifying some shit #stanley pines #fiddleford mcgucket #rambling #hurt/comfort #my fav genre #fic ideas #fanfic

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ceaselesswatchersspecialboy · 2 months ago

Note

Not Who He Seems au is still bouncing around in my brain like crazy so here's few questions:

Does Stanfraud sleep in the bodyswap carpet room or somewhere else?

What was Pines' reaction to finding out that Bill is literally an ultra powerful god that is a gigantic threat to the whole ass multiverse? The kids and especially Stan know that Bill is a criminal and that he is probably a powerful guy and Ford knows that Bill is a god who wants to destroy Earth's universe. But none of them sure as hell know the true SCALE of WHAT Bill is as a being

Who did put Bill in Ford's body anyway? And why did they do that?

What is Perry's fur/cloth color? Asking this for reasons ;]

Sorry for the mistakes in grammar, English isn't my first language

Oh these questions are exactly what I needed to get bad into the NWHS AU swing! Thank you!

— He sleeps in the bodyswap carpet room, although the carpet has long since been rolled up, and the room itself is filled with a lot of Bill’s taxidermy projects, cursed objects, and the likes. It’s honestly a mess, but Bill can navigate and find everything just fine, so it works for him. It also means the episode Carpe Diem doesn’t happen the same way — either they don’t swap bodies and something else allows them to reconcile, or, they do swap bodies, and it’s actually instigated by Bill who shows them the carpet.

— It’s definitely more of a seeing is believing type deal, as they know Bill is an other worldly dimensional being that most humans would likely consider a God, and Ford especially is familiar with that aspect of Bill, but even then, he’s never witnessed the full force of it. And Stan, and eventually Dipper and Mabel, know that too, but, it clashes heavily with the vision they have of Bill. Stan’s lived with the guy for 30 years, and he’s been the kids wacky uncle all Summer.

They can acknowledge he’s clearly something else, and something powerful, especially after seeing his true form, but it’s only until Weirdmaggedon that they truly comprehend what he’s capable of, and it’s terrifying. For Stan, it’s been a while since he’s been scared at what Bill could do, and for the kids, this is a new kind of fear entirely.

Reality, time itself, it’s all his to warp, and that’s their uncle, that’s Stan’s friend, and that’s Ford’s greatest fear. Hell, people like Soos and Wendy too, the whole town, they all knew him. Most of them won’t know it’s ‘Stanfraud’, of course, but Wendy and Soos definitely do.

And, you know, Bill might almost hesitate at seeing just how scared Mabel is when he tries to speak with her outside of the bubble.

— So, the rough plan I have is that the people who put Bill in Ford’s body… didn’t actually intend to trap him like that per se. They were a group of modern anti-cipherites who believed they had found a way to summon and trap Bill in one location, and they actually had! That, obviously, didn’t go to plan, as when they had attempted the binding ritual, Bill was inside Ford’s body, and it ended up trapping him there instead. The Anti-cipherites have remained active, becoming aware through their studies that Bill likely now walks among them, and have been trying to hunt him down for the past thirty years. They’re sort of like the government threat of this AU.

— He’s a blue and red Plaidypus, sort of like this:

#asks #gravity falls #gravity falls au #not who he seems au #bill cipher

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donnieisonfire · 1 month ago

Text

Dan from Law,

Phil from Media & Editing

is that how it goes? it’s been so long i forgor…

hey poo poos. its been a while, huh…i know, i know, i said i’d publish this the FIRST OF DECEMBER…but ya boy was a bit busy, gimme a breaaaak. anyways…here with a longer chapter to make up for it. enjoy. no smut. just a buncha gay boys and angst. as usual, tags under the cut :3

AO3 LINK

MASTERLIST OF THE CHAPTERS

jump scare, heart eyes howell

Tags :

Basically just fluff, a bit of angst. Mentions of Dan being outted, Dan having a sliiight panic attack?, Phil is allergic asf to cats, ADORABLE CAAATTTSSS, enjoy poo poos xox

Dan and Phil had exchanged numbers after around 30 minutes of talking on Grindr. Dan was just managing to wrap his head around the fact that fucking Phil was some variation of queer. Then, Phil proposed they meet up. For a date. Phil wanted Dan. Whether it was romantic or platonic, Dan was never going to reject that.

It was around midday by now, a little too late to go to a café because of the daylight savings, so they arranged to meet somewhere called ‘La Chat’. It was some French cat café, something that Dan couldn’t afford, but he’d be damned if he didn’t dig into his savings for this “date” with Phil. This might be his only opportunity.

Phil had been texting Dan about how he’d “have to slam back 10 antihistamines" because he’s allergic, but that he didn't mind because he would "rather die than not visit a cat café at all possible opportunities.’’

So, Phil was taking Dan out on yet another coffee date, and he didn't care about the fact that he was going to be sniffling the entire time. And goddamnit, Dan didn’t care either.

The next day, Dan woke up, showered, put on his ugliest knitted sweater as he thought it would beautifully fit the theme (it did) and some fuck ass jeans that most definitely didn’t fit him but were the only pair on his floor that weren’t, like, completely dirty, and then drove towards the cafe.

When he was in the shower earlier that same morning, he had debated not straightening his hair but leaving it, keeping it natural. That’s what his mother always used to say, ‘Girls want you naturally, Daniel’, but he quickly shot down the idea. What did his mother know? Anyway, no girl ever wanted him, naturally or not, so he decided on straightening his hair down. It was all he knew, after all.

His heart was pounding the entire time while he drove, his head a mess and his forehead just a ‘tiny’ bit sweaty, which only helped to slick his hair down to be even more pinstraight, even if it looked a little unnatural.

Maybe, in Dan’s dream world, when Phil and him had been together for a few months, he would let him see his hair. The way it looked just so shockingly different curled, how his fringe looked shorter when he didn’t use his shitty poundland-fake version of a GHD straightener to burn his hair to a crisp. Maybe, if Phil didn’t up and leave after a week or so of Daniel’s messed up self -- his self esteem issues, his bi-weekly existential crises’, his problems with procrastination despite his perfectionist mindset -- maybe he’d let Phil in. Maybe, just maybe, he’d let Phil see him, the imperfection of his hair caused by the years of heat damage.

Possibly.

–

Dan’s shitty ford fiesta slows down to a stop a few feet away from ‘La Chat’. Well, where maps said it was anyway. Dan had never come down this part of London, this was the ‘fancier’ part of London. It wasn’t ever really in Dan’s price range, and it was about a 20 minute diversion from the only route he went out in his car (his commute to work), so he had never seen the street the cafe was down, didn’t even recognise the name of the street, let alone know his own way to the cafe.

Dan was apprehensive to get out of his car, and, momentarily, he felt trapped. Trapped within a 1.1 tonne lump of pissing metal. Trapped within a moving death machine, but it felt safe. Safer than going outside, safer than going into that cafe. Safer than the possibility that Phil would stand him up. Safer than the fact this might’ve all been a lie, that the same thing that happened in Wokingham when he was 17 would repeat, that everyone would find he’s…whatever he is, gay, queer, it didn’t matter. He wanted to keep this a secret, a thing he would keep locked away until the guilt of it all was overpowered by stupid lust, until he didn’t care. But Phil, the mere idea of Phil, made that guilt slowly dissipate.

He took a large breath and refused to let it leave until he stepped out the car. After about 4 seconds, he climbed his awkwardly lanky body out of his shitty fiesta and he exhaled. It would be okay. Phil seemed nice, the idea of Phil and coffee seemed concrete, correct. In his mind, if Phil really wanted to stand him up, then he would pick somewhere shittier, - a bar, possibly - a place Phil wouldn’t regularly go to, not a cafe. Dan didn’t know a lot about Phil, but he knew he liked - loved - coffee.

Dan took a few steps, then he saw one of those foldable chalkboards with a ginger cat drawn in chalk with ‘’Sandwich + Milkshake for £12 every Tuesday, 4-6’’ next to it, written in blue chalk.

And then, without even having to look up and see the ‘Le Chat’ sign above the cafe and its large windows, he knew he was in the correct place. Expensive food, expensive drinks, shitty deals.

He looks up, still at least 5 steps from the door. His heart pounded even harder than it already was, from leaving the safe confines of his car, when he saw Phil in one of the booth’s near the window. He intently watched Phil for a few moments, watching – studying – what he did when he was alone.

Phil stood up inside the cafe, walking towards the male bathrooms. Dan watched him sneeze once, then again, then bump into a tall woman, wearing the ‘La Chat’ uniform, with a sandwich in her arms on a plate. The woman proceeded to drop the plate and Phil was apologising, while he continued to sneeze. A cat jumped atop of his table, poking its paw innocently in his cup, getting cat hair all in his coffee.

The whole scene was chaotic, yet it calmed Dan’s nerves as he stepped closer to the cafe. Chaos was regular for Dan, calmed him, made the world feel a bit more real, less worrying. Phil might be able to possibly size up to how chaotic he was. Possibly. Probably not, but possibly.

Dan watches as Phil stumbles off to the bathroom. He walks into the Cafe, hearing a little dingle above him from a bell attached to the door. No one looks over, relievingly. Except a waitress, the same waitress that Phil had knocked over.

‘’Hello. Do you need a seat?’’ She says. Dan shakes his head, ‘’No, I’m meeting someone. They’re already here. Thanks.’’ Dan internally cringed and slapped himself for saying ‘They’re’ instead of ‘he’s’. He was trying to get over the embarrassment of being gay, or whatever he was, and fixing small bits in how he spoke was a step in that direction; it just wasn’t that easy. At all.

The woman nods and walks into the back of the kitchen, presumably to ring in another sandwich to replace the one Phil had made her drop. Dan walks towards the booth that Phil `had been sitting at. There was a ginger cat on the table, splayed out, belly-up to the ceiling.

“God, I’d love to be a cat for a day.” A familiar voice spoke behind him as he sat down at the booth. He turned his head to his left, and there was Phil. Dan flashes Phil his most ‘I didn’t nearly cry in the car over here’ smile, which ended up being an awkward smile, but it got his whole ‘I’m happy to be here’ idea across, which was what he wanted.

#daniel howell is a coffee hoe #15 years of dan and phil #dan and phil games #dan howell x phil lester #danandphil #danisnotonfire #blonde phil my beloved #phil lester is a top #top phil lester #blonde phil #phillip lester #phil lester #dan and phil #amazingphil #tatinof #dapgos #the fantastic foursome #daniel howell #dan howell

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megamindsupremacy · 4 months ago

Text

Relativity Falls AU

[Part 1] [Part 2] Part 3 [Part 4]

Two months after Pacifica runs away from Dipper and the portal project, Mabel appears at Dipper’s house. She’s gotten really concerned, because her idiot brother has stopped responding to any letters, stopped picking up phone calls, stopped publishing articles, and has more or less completely dropped off the goddamn map.

So she arrives in Gravity Falls, locates her brother after a waitress mentions the “weird smelly researcher living in a hut in the woods,” and nearly takes out his front door with her knocking before he finally answers the door.

He is holding a gun.

Mabel is unimpressed.

She tells him to cut the shit and answer her already, what the hell is going on, why has he not been answering her letters, why is he living in a shack in the woods in Oregon, has he showered in the past two weeks?

Unfortunately for Mabel, Dipper is not in the right state to answer her questions reasonably, because he has well and truly lost his goddamn mind after Pacifica left him. Hosting Bill has been horrible for his mental state - Bill hasn’t been even a little bit gentle with his brain, even less so than he was with Ford in Canon Falls, and Dipper is Feeling It.

After Pacifica left, Dipper has been running on dwindling money, materials, and equipment. He’s at his limit. Bill is pushing him past it.

In response to Mabel’s reasonable questions, i.e “wtf is going on with you”, Dipper goes I’M UNCOVERING THE SECRETS TO THE UNIVERSE while waving his gun around and making a lot of concerning facial expressions. It’s concerning. Mabel is concerned. She does manage to take his gun away, though.

Mabel and Dipper have an argument, the main points of which can be boiled down to:

Mabel, freaked out: Dipper, I think you might be actually genuinely insane right now. Please go take a bath, you smell horrible. Dipper, eyes bloodshot, waving his hands around: I NEED TO BUILD A PORTAL TO ANOTHER DIMENSION FOR THE GLORY OF THE TRIANGLE AND TO PROPEL MYSELF INTO FAME AND FORTUNE [Dipper drags Mabel downstairs into his basement and triumphantly shows her the newly-finished portal] Mabel, was not expecting an actual literal fucking portal: What the hell is GOING ON with you Dipper, suddenly furious: You wouldn’t understand, you always were the more popular twin, you’re the successful famous rich amazing popular etc etc tw

(Mabel internal dialogue: exCUSE ME?)

Mabel's like, pretty sure that her brother is actually going insane, but he's still saying some really hurtful things, enough so that she starts to get pissed at him.

Mabel notices that Dipper has been holding onto a journal (...the journal she made for him?) this entire time, so she yanks it out of his hands and tells him that he's coming upstairs right now, he's eating a goddamn meal and drinking a glass of Mabel Juice and getting ten hours of sleep and then after that, maybe, they can have a reasonable and adult discussion about whatever the hell is going on with him.

Dipper says something Very Sane and Comprehensible, at a Reasonable Tone and Pitch, at the thought of sleeping for so long (THE DEMON). Then he lunges for the journal.

They... fight. There's a huge commotion. Dipper is screaming.

(For the first time, Mabel is scared, not for, but of her brother.)

Levers get pulled. Mabel's arm gets scorched when Dipper pushes her into a hot rune. She shrieks. His eyes momentarily clear, and he says "Oh god, Mabel, what have I-"

She kicks him off of her.

Dipper goes through the portal. The portal screeches to a close.

Mabel sits in the basement, burned, clutching her brother’s journal, and begins to panic.

#mads posts #gravity falls #mabel pines #dipper pines #relativity falls #relativity falls au #gravity falls au #POOR MABEL #SHE IS GOING THROUGH IT #SHE HAS NO FUCKING CLUE WHAT IS GOING ON #tfw your little brother who youve always been close to and lowkey protective of #(and him protective of you in turn)#has gone fully insane and is living in a hut in the woods talking about a triangle god and screaming about how much he hates you #and you think he might be completely gone except you get horribly injured and for one moment he's -maybe- *maybe* back #but in your pain and terror you kick him away from you and he goes flying through a portal he built to god knows where #and all you have left of him is his final words (mabel HELP) and his journal (you made it for him)#tfw #what then #grunkle mason au

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thegigilwriter · 27 days ago

Text

23 | “Danger & Star, Rooster & Angel” — Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw x Female Mitchell OC

Summary. 26-year-old Lucy Asa Mitchell did not know what was in store for her when she first bumped into Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw. After an instant mutual connection followed by a sweet whirlwind romance that swept both their feet, Lucy found herself being immersed deeper into Bradley’s world of the Navy, F-14s, and deployments. What she didn’t expect was finding was the answer to an elusive part of her past — the identity of her long-lost father.

Masterlist

Chapter Summary. Will Bradley finally unravel the true source of Lucy's grief?

Keywords/Warnings: ANGST, missing family members, eventual fluff

23 | Always You 🌑

June 26, 2010

It was the summer before their first day of school in America. At the campgrounds of Trillium Lake in Oregon, Lucy and Ford are at their first summer camp. After a morning filled with fishing, swimming, rock climbing, and treks through the nearby wilderness, it was finally lunch time.

“Iʼll see ya later, Brenda!ˮ Lucy waved as she wandered from her group table and set off to look for Ford. She headed over to the boyʼs divide and gazed out into the crowd of long-limbed 12 to 15-year-olds with tousled locks and mud splatter on their faces. Lucy walked towards Fordʼs supposed group and neared bespectacled Gareth drinking a carton of milk.

“Hey Gar, have you seen my brother?ˮ She smiled. A blush littered across his pale and freckled cheeks as he shyly looked away.

“N-nope,ˮ he replied. “He was just here a little while ago, but I got called away to get my inhaler. He may be in the bathroom though. Uh... that way...ˮ

“Thanks!ˮ

Lucy was about to round the corner to the stalls, when she heard some voices nearby. They sounded hostile, so she quickly hid behind the brick wall as she pressed her ear discreetly towards the direction of the altercation.

“Leave me alone!ˮ

Yani!

Lucy heard the cacophony of commotion, the rustle of clothes and the sound of bodies being shoved against the solid ground.

“Or what?!ˮ

There was a thunder in Lucyʼs ears and without missing a beat, Lucy collected a pebble within her reach and expertly threw it at the back of the perpetratorʼs head. He was tall, at least two heads over Lucy. His width matched his height— towering over her like a stone wall. His hair was a brilliant bright red but his eyes were dark with anger. Ford was on the ground, caging his face with his arms. Her eyes flickered towards his right ankle, it looked angry and swollen. Lucy tread on, emerging from the shadow of the wall she hid behind and raising her chin.

“Iʼm what,ˮ Lucy replied. The bully laughed, leaving Ford in the dust and grabbing the front of her shirt.

“Lucy...ˮ Ford weakly called out.

“Look at you so scared and pathetic,ˮ he mocked. “What are you gonna do now, lilʼ girl?ˮ

The brute watched in amusement as Lucyʼs nose flared and her eyes glisten with tears. Her cheeks were red with anger and her lips were pressed into a tight line. And then, with all her might, she struck the top of her foot against the inside of his thigh. He let go instantly, barreling towards the dirt in pain as he whimpered. Lucy quickly got to her feet and carried Ford on her back.

“I got you,ˮ she said to him with a comforting smile, even as he looked away with a pout. Lucy chuckled because Ford was a prideful creature — and even though Lucy was younger by only a matter of minutes, he always saw himself as the big brother she should look up to. It didnʼt matter to Lucy though, he was always going to be her big brother — one that she would be protecting many times from this moment on.

October 14, 2023

Lucy awoke with a gasp. Everything felt drenched in her own sweat — the sheets beneath her, the scalp on her head, the skin between her thighs. She dreamt of Ford again — an old memory of them together. Lucy wasnʼt even sure that Ford was really dead and he was already haunting her like a ghost. She drew the blankets that she previously discarded in her sleep to her knees, suddenly feeling chilly. She stared at the empty space beside her and another memory filled her mind— one of Bradley with his warm embrace, his handsome eyes, and his sweet kisses. If he was here he would already be awake right beside her, soothing Lucy against his chest and accompanying her lonesome lips. Bitter tears pricked at her eyes.

“Iʼm done putting up with you.ˮ

She was done too. She was sick of herself already. Every waking day was reminder of her bleak existence — cooking, caring for her plants and little pets, watching Downtown Abbey, diving, learning, working — all these things no longer brought her joy. She returned to work some days ago, but she had to be kept off whale interactions on the account that she nearly suffered from hypoxia because she was not paying attention to her oxygen gauge. She must have looked so downright miserable that Diego did not throw even a single comment in her direction. Lucy felt bad for how she snapped at Sam and Chen when they asked her how she was. She felt angry for how Dr. Agnes looks at her— so full of pity. The sky outside was still dark, and before she could tuck herself into her sleep once more, her phone rang.

Could it be...

Bradley?

He had stopped calling her two days ago, and Lucy wondered if he was really finally done with her as he had said. Hope gripped her heart as she grabbed her phone swiftly, not bothering to look at the caller ID as she picked it up.

“‘Bout damn time.ˮ

“Celeste...ˮ

“Thought I was Bradley, didnʼt you?ˮ

“Well... I-I...ˮ

“Itʼs okay Lucy,ˮ she sighed on the other line. “I-I was just trying to light up the mood. I didnʼt mean to start anything.ˮ

“You didnʼt, youʼre fine...ˮ

“Are you and Bradley fine, too?ˮ

A beat.

“I just called to see how you are Lucy. Iʼm glad that you picked up.ˮ

If only it had been me.

Lucy couldnʼt speak, her heart so thickly ladened with emotion. If she uttered anything, she feared that they would spill out and she would have a mess on her hands that would take her forever to clean up.

“You donʼt have to speak, just listen. Whether or not Ford is alive, you have to keep living Lucy — not only for Ford, but for yourself.ˮ

A tear trickled down her cheek, iridescent against the bright screen of her phone.

“I know itʼs hard. I know how close you were, and I know that you didnʼt end on good terms on the day he left. But Lucy... you canʼt keep on going like this. Whatever you may think, you are not a bad person and this not your fault. Itʼs... this something out from our control...ˮ

Maybe not, Lucy thought. If I had made the right choice...

“You know... if it werenʼt for Bradley, I would have come over there myself and see how you were doing.ˮ

“B-Bradley?ˮ

“He contacted me and we talked. He knows about what happened to Ford,ˮ she told her bluntly. “I know that you donʼt want him knowing— and I take full responsibility for disclosing something private and important to you... but the man clearly cares about you, Lucy.ˮ

Lucy drew a shaky inhale.

“He wonʼt want to be with me,ˮ she whispered. “Not after all the things Iʼve said. Heʼs too good to me Celeste... I canʼt keep treating him like this.ˮ

“Then put an end to his misery and let him in for godʼs sake!ˮ Celeste told her impatiently. “You have something special here, Lucy. Donʼt let your past dictate the course of your life. Something this heavy shouldnʼt have to be carried with only your shoulders.ˮ

“What if he canʼt carry it?ˮ

“What if you let him try?ˮ

A beat.

“I love you, ‘lil sis. Call me.ˮ

Celeste ended the call, leaving Lucy to lie with her thoughts until dawn... until her fingers suddenly had the strange urge to pick up her phone, and before she knew it she was calling the one person she should have all this time. Lucy waited with bated breath as each ring commenced. Tears pricked the side of her eyes with every second that passed that she didnʼt hear his voice. She finally resigned, finger hovering over the ‘End Callʼ sign.

“Angel?ˮ A voice called out to her.

“Bradley,ˮ she breathed out.

“Are you okay?ˮ She could hear the rasp in his voice.

“I-I woke you up,ˮ she stuttered. “I can c-call you back.ˮ

“No!ˮ He said to her. “N-Nowʼs good. How are you?ˮ

A beat.

“Can you... can you come over?ˮ

Another beat.

“I-Itʼs okay y-you donʼt have to.ˮ

Silence... then the chatter of movement.

“No Angel, no,ˮ Lucy could hear his smile on the other side. “I... I was just looking for my keys.ˮ

Lucy picked at the tufts of her sweater— a quilt over her legs as she sat on her purple couch. She stared at her living room table with a blank gaze — particularly the newspaper that laid face down against it. The moon, rotund and bright this very night spilled unto the carpet, casting strange shadows against her plants on the window sill. The silence of waiting was deafening and Lucy was just about to reach for the remote control when she heard the faint jiggle of the doorknob. She turned towards the entryway, and there was Bradley, his broad shoulders filling the threshold. Despite the dark circles beneath his eyes and the crease and his brow— he looked ever so desirable with his mess of honey curls, his stache, his sleepy little smile, and the glint in his eye as he held her in his sights.

“Angel,ˮ he breathed.

“Bradley,ˮ she whispered, looking away shyly as he entered her apartment quietly and padded towards her on the couch. He kneeled in front of her, his fingers gripping the near edge of the quilt as he looked up at her adoringly. How could he? Lucy thought. It was still unfathomable that Bradley Bradshaw was in her apartment in one call, let alone someone to call hers.

“Baby?ˮ He said softly. She bit her lip, gesturing towards the table to which Bradley turned to to retrieve a newspaper. He met her stare, perplexed.

“I know about Ford, Angel.ˮ He told her. “You donʼt have to explain anything. I came here to apolo—“

“W-When mom got sick,ˮ she breathed out. “Ford and I made a promise to e-each other that we b-both couldnʼt leave her alone at the same time...ˮ

Bradley listened intently, but his eyes glanced towards her empty palm longingly.

“Then the Avery murder happened,ˮ she whispered. “And he couldnʼt come home very often. I-I had to stay by momʼs side constantly— traveling to and from Portland every week. I-I was s-scared...ˮ

“Before mom got sick I applied for a position as an associate on the ‘Explorerʼ...ˮ she sighed. “Itʼs a famous ship, known to carry some of the best cetologists on an expedition taken only every five years to follow a species of a rare whale migration. Itʼs very competitive and never I thought I could ever get in. Dr. Agnes encouraged Chen, Sam, and I to apply. And I did...ˮ

“The day Ford left for New York, was the day I r-received the letter of acceptance,ˮ Lucy swallowed deeply, her eyes moving everywhere but towards Bradleyʼs, he held her clenched hand in his and smoothed the ridges of her knuckles with the pad of her thumb. “I wanted to go on the Explorer just as badly that Ford wanted to go on his mission. I w-was f-furious. It w-was just s-so unfair about how he always got what he wanted! I was s-scared of him leaving me alone with m-mom because heʼs the o-only p-person that she l-likes, even more than me—!ˮ

“Angel—“

“And Iʼm a horrible person because I told h-him n-never to c-come back!ˮ Her chest was heaving violently now, and Bradley shifted himself to her side, putting an arm around her.

“Oh Baby,ˮ he whispered. “That doesnʼt make you a horrible person—“

“Read the paper, Bradley, please!ˮ

And so he did. He picked up the front page to his periphery and above the 12 photographed faces and one that depicted a grand vessel afloat on sea, was a bold headline.

‘EXPLORERʼ GONE MISSING

June 26, 2021

He turned to her.

“Donʼt you see?ˮ She told him as she shook her head. “I-It should have b-been... me. If I had begged Celeste to take his place. If I had left before he did. I wouldʼve been gone... and he wouldʼve been here and mpm wouldʼve been far better off with him. It shouldʼve been me, Bradley...ˮ

He cradled her head into his grasp and let her cry into his chest. His heart clenched at the sound of her sobs, and even more at what she had just confessed. How could she think that? He thought. How could someone so wonderful and beautiful think of herself like that? After his conversation with Celeste a few days ago, Bradley felt certain of the extent of her hurt... and now he felt as if he has misstepped, underestimated the depth of a pothole as he navigated the dark face of the moon. Though he empathized with her sorrow, a part of Bradley felt endeared by the guilt she expressed. His Angel is a good person, who loves very deeply, and has endured a great ordeal. However can he fix her? However can he love her in way that he could never hurt her?

Then it occurred to him.

“All this time we were fighting,ˮ Bradley held her closer, sighing into her ear. “I was thinking of how I can just make everything that made you upset go away. I was thinking of a way to fix you. But I canʼt just do that, canʼt I?ˮ

She looked up at him. Those glistening, sweet, brown eyes staring right into him.

“Something like this is going to hurt for a long time,ˮ he told her. “I know that now. But no matter what you think of yourself. No matter what happens... Iʼm going to be here Lucy. I meant it when I said that Iʼm in love with you...ˮ

Lucy hiccuped as he cupped her wet cheek.

“I was afraid...ˮ she rasped. “That you really were done with me... you looked just so... t-triggered...ˮ

Bradley paused, sighing.

“The p-people I loved,ˮ He faltered. “Pushed me away to protect me. My Mom didnʼt really tell me that my Dad was gone until I was a little older — even when I would sit on the front porch almost everyday waiting for him to come home. Mav pulled my papers at the Naval Academy because he was afraid that I would end up like my dad... When we fought that day, I was hurt because I thought I was losing you and I didn’t know what I did wrong...ˮ

“You did nothing wrong,ˮ she whispered... her gaze holding his intently. “And you can never lose me, Bradley.”

“Iʼm sorry, Angel.ˮ

“Iʼm sorry, my love.ˮ

Bradley smiled, pulling her cheek cautiously towards him... and with her consenting nod, placed his lips on hers. Who knew, that such a bitter absence of her presence could result in something so sweet. All those nights of longing, empty sheets, and heavy hearts have finally concluded. As Bradley carried Lucy into his arms and set towards her bedroom for a true nightʼs sleep.

It wasn’t easy writing a chapter this heavy. I have to admit that my heart broke just a little tearing these lovebirds apart, but I’m glad they’re back and stronger than ever. Thanks for reading, and I hope you stick around for the next one!

Taglist: @itsarabellebabes @harrysgothicbitch

#top gun fanfiction #top gun fandom #top gun maverick fanfiction #rooster fanfiction #tgm fic #bradley bradshaw x reader #bradley bradshaw #bradley rooster bradshaw #rooster top gun #top gun imagine

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artisiumstudios · 1 hour ago

Text

Au where Stan finds the duffle bag.

HEAR ME OUT-

Basically it’s like a week or two before the science fair, Stan is minding his business (sort of) and while he’s going through a closet/cabinet trying to find some supplies, either for the Stan’o’War or his car, he finds a duffle bag. Curious he rummages through the bag, inside are some toiletries, 20 bucks, and clothing- wait a second. Those are his; his shirt, his pants, his socks— all stuff he has been missing for a couple of weeks. He’s confused, scared, and worried.

Why would his stuff be in here? Why are there toiletries? Why is there money? And who put them there? Unfortunately he already has his answer. Pa was always clear that none of his children would continue leech off of him. If you had nothing to prove then you had nothing to take. The conversation behind the principal’a door swarmed through his mind. How long had pa had his bag packed? Was this always the plan? Was Stanley really that worthless?

But that didn’t matter because Ford wouldn’t choose a school over him! They were going to sail the world together and that would be that, to hell with Pa if he wanted Stan gone then fine he didn’t need him, he didn’t need anyone but his brother and the sea!

At first Stan wants to tell Ford about what he found, but decides not to because in the end it won’t be important. So he keeps quiet and decides to take the bag into his car, after all hey 20 bucks and he gets his stuff back! He can’t leave it in his room cause if Pa finds out he was snooping through his stuff, well he’d rather not think about that.

Then the conversation on the swing set happens, and Stan’s head starts spinning. So it wasn’t just Pa who wanted Stan out, Ford was willing to ditch him too. Stan feels betrayed and hurt, he doesn’t know what to say or what to do. He starts to question his theory, did ford help pack his bag? Was that why he had been so distant lately, feeling guilty for letting his Pa kick him out and even helping him with the bag?

Did ma know? Eventually Ford leaves, huffing from Stan’s lack of enthusiasm and response, mumbling about being jealous that he has a better future up ahead, not just some silly childish dream. Stan snaps, not physically, not with his words: just emotionally.

Fine if they don’t want him there then he’ll just leave. That night while everyone is asleep he grabs all of his money, more clothing, a sketch book, his comics— a picture of him and ford on the stan’o’war— and some other things he thinks might be valuable or just handy. And he drives away.

Nobody notices Stanley’s disappearance the next day, not until night has fallen. Ford cheerfully excited with his new full ride scholarship, goes and tells his parents. Caryn is happy, tears of joy falling down her face as she hugs her intelligent baby boy, his father gives a small smile and a nod— he gives his approval. But the mood changes once he questions where Stanley is. No one has seen him in hours, actually his car has been gone since early morning. They wait awake all night, hoping for some sign, some clue!

Filbrick grunts as he walks up to the closet, his eyebrows furrow ever so slightly, his lips pressed in a tight line. He sighs deeply.

Eventually a report is filed, but there is not much they can do, if Stanley ran away then he isn’t missing, and the police refuse to do anything about that.

Anyways thats like yk the beginning of how this whole thing happens but here are some other thoughts and ideas:

Stan:

Without Filbrick telling him he’s not allowed back into the family without a million dollars, Stan isn’t as driven by money as in canon. He doesn’t have a need for large amounts of money therefore he doesn’t have a need to do sketchy jobs just to satisfy his need to have his family back. In other words he doesn’t have as much trauma as in canon and is actually more able to settle down without being on the run or in survival mode. The first couple of months he just spends driving as far away from the East as possible making his way over to New Mexico where he settles down, first as a bar tender then eventually as a mechanic, he lives comfortably in a crummy apartment but hey he doesn’t really need much

Unfortunately he does get bored, even if it’s not with his brother he does crave adventure. And while fixing a this guys truck he overhears of a town called Gravity Falls, where weird creatures tend to reside in. So you guessed it, he picks up and drives from New Mexico over to Gravity Falls Oregon.

He gets a small but nicer apartment this time around and first he works as a mechanic. Immediately he starts to get a sense of the place and its weirdness and he loves it! (Ford would love it here-) .

Since the blind eye isn’t a thing people have two reactions to the weirdness of gravity falls: freak tf out or shrug and go on with their day. Stanley being Stanley gets the great idea to act sort of like a monster hunter/ putting small attractions up with the less violent creatures, not the mystery shack, but more like the mystery circus!

Eventually Stanley gets the name Monster-Lee for his ability to be able to fight off creatures so easily (mostly through bribery or fists)

Ford:

He still leaves for West Tech, but now he's fallen into extreme stress/anxiety and a bit of depression. Why did his brother leave? Why didn't he say anything? Is he okay? Why did he ever let their father get between them, he should've spent more time with him when he had the chance-

Unlike canon, Ford has no resentment/grudges to hold over Stanley, rather he holds that anger towards Filbrick especially when he found out that he had planned to kick Stanley out-- for being the reason Stanley left.

While Ford does still want to study anomalies, he also takes engineering classes, he wants to develop better technology and hopefully resources for run away teens/homeless teens.

While he doesn't meet Fiddleford as his roommate, he does meet him at a robotics convention where they instantly become friends. After college they develop a small company based around the idea of being able to find people, now expanding into different areas.

Ford is a lot more open with the fact the not only is he a twin, but he likes to talk about his younger twin brother who supported him and always stood up for him.

Part of the development with the technology involved finding people in forest dense areas, especially with a lot of caves (please tell me someones seen that one chart) Which then leads them to gravity falls as their first test area, small enough to test their tech, but still forest dense to get sufficient results.

and then these three bozos find each other lol. anyways thats all i got , i thought of this in the shower like 30 minutes ago and decided to procrastinate on my HW writing this lol. anyways

#gravity falls #stanley pines #gravity falls au #stanford pines #stanley pines angst #fiddleford mcgucket #this is probably the happiest au ive come up with #which says something #okay i seriously need to do my homework lol #oh also idk if bill should make an appearance or not #like i want him to but like idk how #also im calling this au the disappearance au #disappearance au #lol

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