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pinetwiins · 6 years ago

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A Drabble for Verse!Beta; Yako’s death and Dark!Ford’s Origin story.

Mabel & Stanley & Stanford / Dark Ford - (Me) @pinetwiins

Neuro + Yako @hellsgreatestdetective

Bill Cipher (DAPPER) @joinwithmekid

Please note - there is death in this thing, its long and also includes an old man dying from a heart attack.

Neuro

Yako is thrown onto the sofa but her reflexes seem... off. She does not roll to avoid and hits the sofa hard. Neuro notices and isn't grinning so much. "What Bill chooses to do with the relationship I shall not protest again."

StanfordPines

wait what?? He is also very worried over yako.

DAPPER (Bill)

Bill also notices. “Off day, Foodie?”

Neuro

Neuro waits for Yako to get up. She seems completely still for several moments before she suddenly moves, almost baffled at where she is. It's very not Yako behaviour.

StanfordPines

“hey... sweetheart... are you okay?”

Yako

"I'm sorry. I kind of blacked out there, what happened?" She tries to laugh it off, but she can't even laugh right. What the hell? "Maybe I was more badly hurt than I thought, but the medics had checked for injuries and said I was doing fine."

StanfordPines

he bites his lip and walked over to stand next to the couch. “perhaps... perhaps they overlooked something...?” He is very worried.

Yako

"I can't remember hitting my head at any point. Maybe I'm just tired. I should head to be-" She seems to have forgotten what she was saying.

StanfordPines

he feels his heart rate picking up.... he’s.... he’s scared...

Neuro

Neuro snaps a finger in front of her. She does not react for several moments.

DAPPER (Bill)

Bill’s not shocked or worried at all, he just watches. He’s seen this happen hundreds of times - not exactly like this, but generally speaking. Death means nothing to him. Actually, he just giggles a bit at the fact she forgot what she was saying. “Yep, you should go sleep kid! Actually, sleep here. You’ll forget what you’re doing on the way to bed, don’t want that!”

Yako

"That's- that's a good idea. Thank you Will." She kind of just- shuts down there. She doesn't have the energy to be nervous about her own condition. Neuro looks worried for once.

DAPPER (bill)

“It’s Bill! Try and remember when you wake up!” He fixes his hair. “Don’t worry so much guys, she’s fine for now!”

StanfordPines

“Ya-Yako...? Heh... sweetheart, come on, you should sleep in bed...” he’s really scared, he’s freaking out right now.

Neuro

"...For now, you just said. So you know what's happening."

Yako

Yako is already fast asleep, barely breathing.

DAPPER (Bill)

“Course I do! I’ve seen this more times than there are grains of sand on Earth.” He’s still pretty nonchalant.

StanfordPines

”Bill....” he swallowed hard and kneels down, taking her hand. “Hey, yo-you’ll be okay... you’ll see... we’ll... we’ll go on an adventure, on the stan o war...” his voice cracks as he try’s not to show his panic.

Neuro

"So it's death?" Truthfully, he did not expect it so suddenly and so... lamely. "But why now of all times?"

August 3, 2018

Yako

"Yeah... tomorrow..." She mumbles vaguely to herself, curling into her side. She can feel herself drifting, smiling in her sleep.

DAPPER (Bill)

“Dying but not dying isn’t natural for fragile meatsacks. All that death’s finally catching up to her. She’s still got some time, but this is probably the gentlest path of it happening I foresaw, so you should probably not wake her up. Don’t want Neuri’s human to suffer, do ya?”

Neuro

"Ah... all those instances. The universe is reclaiming it's debt. Shame... she was a good detective." He's not necessarily angry, rather disappointed. Ghosts still existed, no? Perhaps she would return as one. He could be hopeful that god would give him this one mercy. "I suppose it's only right we look for the rest of her family."

StanfordPines

”Stanley.... oh gosh Stanley... Yako was the only one other than the kids keeping him sane and-“ not wanting to kill himself...

Yako

Yako just sighs in her sleep, waking up again. She looks annoyed."Too loud." She announces puffing out her cheeks and getting up. She does not seem to recognise anyone.

DAPPER (Bill)

“Well, so much for the gentle one!” He shrugs, leaning back in his seat.

StanfordPines

to his knowledge he hadn’t been speaking very loudly... he put on a forced watery smile. “So Sorry Yako, do try and sleep again.” He murmured.

Yako

"Dun know 'ow ya know ma name Mister but A ain't sleepin' 'ere." She's just sulking. Strangely seems more energetic than before. "Ya got food?"

StanfordPines

”Um... Yako... I’m your Grandfather... well adopted... tell me... how old are you? You seem to have memory’s missing...”where did this energy come from?

Yako

~"Whaaaaa ya arna grandda 'e's got a mullet and a silly voice. A can copy it!" She clears her voice. "Hey kids and welcome to the MYSTERY SHACK!" She poses dramatically but yelps at her own arm, rubbing it. "Though 'e's been sore recently, 'e 'urt 'is back." She pauses at the question then raises nine fingers, pausing, and adding another. "Ten in three days! We're gonna fix the roof an' 'ave a party!"

StanfordPines

he laughs at the imitation. “I’m his twin brother... Stanley is upstairs he will be down-“ he’s cut off by the creeking of the stairs.

Yako

She gasps really dramatically

StanleyPines

”hey! Pointdexter! I hear someone copying me! Hah! Is that Yako at it again?”He gets to the bottom of the stairs and walks into the room.

Yako

"E 'as a twin!? Awesome! Are ya psychic! Grandda ya never said ya had a twin!"

DAPPER (Bill)

Bill’s just gonna watch this all play out. He’s not messing with time or what’s supposed to happen, he doesn’t care enough to. Actually he would if Neuri wanted him to do something but that’d be difficult to accomplish at this point of the death process.

Neuro

Neuro's going to let Yako spend her last moments with her family. As much as he would like to undo it... even he follows a few of the rules.

StanleyPines

He blinks and looks at her. “Hey Peanut... are you okay? I’m pretty sure I told you about that... the lab under the house?”

Yako

She gasps even louder

StanfordPines

”I’m- im sorry Stan...” he whispers as he stands next to him. “She’s dying...”

Yako

"A LAB!?!?" She is flapping her arms in excitement. "Grandda's so cool! Can A see. A'm gonna see!" She's up like a lightning bolt trying to find the door.

StanleyPines

”the hell you on about?” He hissed back not wanting to believe him. “Hey! Sweetheart! You can look later! Come back in here!”

Yako

~"But A wanna solve the mystery shack mystery!" She's persistent but sulks back when he calls her forward. "When did ya get so grey? Did ya dye ya hair by accident? A thought we were fixin' the roof today?"

StanleyPines

”from what I can see sweetie, is that ya memories are being wonky, going from past to future, but no matter, come sit with me on the couch.””you know how I know? Because you’re not currently 10 years old.”

Yako

"Don' give me science speak secret scientist A shall uncover ya yet!" She announces proudly, marching forward. "Course A'm not ten A'm nine silly." She plops herself onto the couch next to him, kicking her feet back and forth. "But ma legs really 'urt they're cold!"

StanleyPines

“....lie against me sweetie...”his voice is shaking slightly

Yako

"Sure thing!" She does just that and... seems to fall asleep for the longest time. She is icy to the touch. Her breathing is shallow, and she is barely moving at all. Then she seems to jump awake suddenly, rubbing her head. "Just a bad dream..." She looks around "This isn't my office?"

StanleyPines

“....no, it’s the shack sweetheart.... you okay?”

Yako

She seems startled by the man and jumps away from him, blinking in surprise."I'm terribly sorry sir, I do not know how I got here."

StanleyPines

”Peanut? Are you okay?”

Yako

"P-pardon? Do I know you, sir? As far as I'm aware I just bought my office in London yesterday how on earth did I get here?" She gestures vaguely to the entire building.

StanleyPines

“ya memories are being wackie... ya 25 years old Yako, your in the mystery Shack and I’m ya adopted grandpa.”he wonders how many times he’ll have ya repeat that...

Yako

"I'm terribly sorry, sir, but you must be mistaken. I haven't even turned twenty-one and... my grandfather passed away some time ago. Look if you're trying to con me into some sort of vacuuming business I'm not interested I am perfectly capable of cleaning up after myself and how the hell do you know my name?"

StanleyPines

he laughs at that, his signature laugh. “I used ta sell vacuums.... I’m telling the truth Peanut. A car knocked ya over sweetie, I was fine, just a concussion and a back that now won’t stop giving out on me.”

Yako

"Look, sir, I don't like this game your playing." She responds, a warning tone to her voice. "But if Dylan sent you over you can kindly tell him that the next time he bothers he his messenger boy is getting a bullet to the head, understand?" She keeps rubbing at her eyes, as though she's tired and she is, trying not to yawn in front of the threat. "And he can keep his murder sprees the hell away from me." She does end up yawning and hates herself for it.

DAPPER (Bill)

Bill appears to be thoroughly amused by this, a smirk on his face as he watches the death play out. To the untrained (and maybe even the trained) eye, he looks like the heartless dick he’s proclaimed himself to be. Beneath that, though, is something entirely different. His well constructed wall of assholery hides a small, grieving voice. He doesn’t care a lot about Yako. She was just another fleshbag about to die. The most important she’d become to him is his boyfriends human. Even so, there are internal tears behind the laugh of amusement he lets out, tears that no one can see or hear. Why, you ask? Why is he feeling this way? He’d never admit it out loud, but this reminds him of the death of his only friend. The death that originally set him off on the path of rejecting reality, the death that eventually caused him to destroy his dimension out of his own denial. Stan’s reaction to this situation.. well, it reminds him of his own. Absolute denial, down to the very end until it’s too late. He wants to tell Stan to tell her goodbye while he still could, but he says nothing, staying silent for the most part aside from the occasional laugh.

StanleyPines

“who the fuck is Dylan?” He grumbled. He didn’t like this, he wants someone to convince her... plus he hasn’t changed that much....

Yako

"You should know he bloody well runs the city god down mobster bastard almost killed me yesterday I swear his aim's improving." She whines more to herself than others, slumping down on the sofa. "Damn, I'm tired.Talk about a shitty start to a shitty day." She tries to rub away the exhaustion but her hand stops midway through reaching for her face. It then slumps back down. Her mumbling falls silent.

StanleyPines

his heart rate picks up, he’s still denying it but it’s getting really clear something is really wrong.

Yako

"I think I saw my grandda today. I know it must be a hallucation, doctor, I've seen lots of them recently. People that aren't there, people that have died or are not real at all. How am I supposed to deal with it?" She leans into the sofa, then lies down on it. "But I'm certain I saw him. He was older and greyer but he had these two kids with him. Mason and Mabel. Yes... like the Gleefuls, but what am I supposed to do? Do I just pretend I haven't seen it at all?"

StanleyPines

”ya really must be hallucinating if ya think I’m a doctor Peanut.”

Yako

"Oh ha ha, real funny. Just don't tell the Gleefuls, I don't want any more canon fodder for Stanford to creep around like the gremlin he is." She grumbles, scratching at her neck. Her skin appears to be crumbling away. "I'm going to try something, just to be sure it's a hallucination. See it was in a mirror in the manor up in the attic. Nothing special about it, but if I can confirm I can't walk through it I should be fine. But if I can... if I can I get to see my grandda again, right?"

DAPPER (Bill)

Yep, Bill laughs some more. The exact opposite of his internal emotions. “You know, I’m enjoying this one far more than the one you all just prevented!”

StanleyPines

He kneels down next to the sofa and strokes her hair. “Of course ya can sweetheart.... he’d love ya see ya...”

Yako

"Yep. I'm going to give it a shot today!" She grins up at the man. It slowly fades still and her eyes slide shut. The skin is clearly paling and crumbling away, disappearing like ash. When she next opens her eyes she looks exhausted. "Hey grandda what's up?"

StanleyPines

he gives a watery laugh, eyes watering... “ya dying pumpkin... ya skin is ash and I’m loosing ya by the minute...” the tears started to fall.”Ya memory has even been through ya deaths from start to now...”His chest was hurting, burning, but he ignored it.

Yako

"Oh." She begins to chuckle. "Out of all the things that would kill me this does it. Talk about a rip off I want a refund." Part of her arm crackles and disappears. She reaches her spare arm out to ruffle his hair. "Hey there don't look so glum you think death will stop my nagging. I'm like a puppy, you can't be rid of me. I'll find a way." She laughs this time. She's sure this is how Neuro almost died, but she doesn't have a back up plan. She didn't expect this at all. Her legs begin to disintergrate. "You'd think they'd have the decency to leave a body this time"

StanleyPines

“....I also think I’m having a heart attack....” he murmured softly face scrunched up in pain...

Yako

"Well shit we need to call a doctor." She uses the last of her strength to grab the phone but Neuro grabs it before her, dialling in the number for an ambulance.

StanleyPines

he could already feel his limbs growing numb/cold. “Hah... I think it’s too late.” He said with a strained smile, his breathing short.

StanfordPines

“Stanley...?!” Ford finally noticed something wrong.

Yako

"Damn it this is supposed to be my dramatic farewell I'll see you in hell moment don't you ruin it by dying first." Oh great now she's crying you were supposed to be fine. "I'm going ahead you bastard. You get to a hospital and get better so I can haunt your ass."

DAPPER (Bill)

Bill didn’t see the heart attack coming, that’s an update. And a clear example of the fact Bill can’t see everything. Huh, this’ll go well.

Neuro

"Yes we appear to have a man at the Mystery Shack in Gravity Falls having a heart attack literally right now."

StanleyPines

He shakily kisses her forehead. “I have a feeling that the universe won’t survive for long...”

StanfordPines

Ford grabbed his sholder, wishing there was something he could do. “No-no-no-no-NO!” He practically shouted.

Yako

Where he kisses the forehead it begins to crumble. She's trying to stay awake but it's failing to work."Asshole universe."

StanleyPines

”see ya later sweet pea...” he murmured as he felt himself grow weak.

Yako

Her body disintergrates into nothing before them all, leaving behind only the bones of a young child probably eight years old with a cracked skull before that too disappears

DAPPER (Bill)

To keep his mind off feelings he makes a mental note to use this idea in his future disturbing plans.

StanleyPines

“Heh... sorry point dexter... seems my heart can’t take it any more...” He wheezed.

StanfordPines

”Stanley..? Stanley! No!” But it was too late and he was holding his twins body in his arms.... He hugs him close... before a cry of grief rips through him.... he lost two people of his family today... his mind can’t take it....

DAPPER (Bill)

Bills still just watching. He can feel Ford’s sanity ripping away from him- this is also unexpected, but a pleasant form of unexpected for him. He isn’t going to stop it or offer any form of emotional help. This was going to happen eventually anyways.

Neuro

Neuro slowly puts the phone down. He finds himself strongly disliking this universe and joins by Bill's side, offering him a worrisome glance for his reaction earlier.

Dark!Ford

His head shoots up and letting go of his brother he sprints from the room, to the lab door and punches in the code.... he didn’t care for what happened now... he would find Yako.... he would- he would.... HE WAS GOING TO REBUILD THAT PORTAL.

Neuro

"We should leave before he traps us in his destruction."

DAPPER (Bill)

Bill just nods. Yeah, he can see what's gonna happen. "I'm ready when you are, Neuri! Wow, that was a show!"

Neuro

Neuro just grabs Bill by the hand and morphs them out of the danger zone back into the Alpha world.

Dark!Ford

Ford doesn’t stop to take a break. Fiddleford has tried but he ended up throwing a spanner at his head and then breaking down when the man ran away from him. It took him a full week of no sleep or eating to complete the portal once again from scratch and from memory... it was finished. A wild grin with wild eyes looked at the portal... and pulled the leaver.The ground shook and he chuckled slightly... which turned into a laugh and then a blown out cackle as the portal switched fully on.

Dark!Ford

Grabbing his bag, coat and already dressed in his portal clothes, he waited for it to fully open... screw weirdmagedon... he didn’t give a flying fuck anymore.

Dark!Ford

He steps through the portal... First stop, Rick Sanchez... then he would decide from there...

SixerToday at 1:37 AM Time stamp (started at 11:43pm British Summer Time)

-end of Rp- -that universe is dead lol- The Portal destroyed that world, the void ended up consuming it. There was no weirdmagedon as it backfired. Stanford is too far gone to care, but deep in his mind, he is consumed with guilt.

#drabble #discord #hellsgreatestdetective #V: Beta #beta:stanley #beta:stanford #this is what happens when you write at midnight #tw: death #tw: heart attack

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fordtato · 8 years ago

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WHY FORD STOPPED STANLEY FROM BURNING THE JOURNALS (AKA, Proof that Ford loves his brother)

Special thanks to @stanfordpines-phd for helping solidify this theory and idea. Note: There are slight journal 3 black-light spoilers here, but they are in code, and are not necessary for this theory.

Bill was a monster.

Ford had hardly slept in weeks, and was constantly under threat of painful and injurious possession, the world was at risk of Armageddon, and it was all his fault.

He was hell bent on destroying Bill’s presence in his mind, body and in the world.

So why not allow Stanley to burn the journals?

After all, he had no problem telling Stanley to leave, to take the journals to the ends of the earth, far from Bill and his home.

So why not destroy them?

One might suggest that it was out of sentimentality — for the last year that journal had been his lifeline, his outlet through all the painful and insane trials he’s overcome (Brief semi-related Journal 3 Blacklight Spoilers: Kh hyhq vdbv zkhq kh fuhdwhv wkh lqylvleoh lqn wkdw kh zrxog jr edfn dqg uhdg wkurxjk wkh sdjhv kh kdg douhdgb zulwwhq, wr khos jurxqg klp dqg pdlqwdlq klv vdqlwb.)

But there’s a more concrete evidence beyond that in the journal.

Let’s think about what Ford says as he prepares to hand his journal off to Stan.

“If I am ever to continue my work, then my enemy must be confronted and defeated forever! I must begin a several-day journey to the accursed caves that brought him into my life. If there is a way to destroy him, I will find it there. But before I can begin this odyssey, I need to dispose of my journals. They’re too valuable to destroy, but the information contained inside is too dangerous, and I shudder to think what might happen if they were to fall into the wrong hands.”

Ford was about to venture into the caves, in the dead of winter (there’s more detail on the time-sensitivity of the changing weather on the next page), in search of a way to destroy Bill. Fair enough.

So, wait, why not destroy the journal?

I mean, he obviously wants to “dispose of them” and get them far away from dangerous hands. He admits that Stanley is well-traveled and would be able to hide the journals far from prying eyes, and he is able to trust his brother to keep it safe. How do I know that?

Well, let’s first think about that opening line: “If I am ever to continue my work...”

Ford was not trying to get rid of the journals permanently, he just needed them safe until a way to stop Bill was discovered. Then he would be able to get his journal back, and continue his life as a scientist in Gravity Falls.

So how does this come back to Stanley?

Well if the journals’ information is valuable as Ford’s life work, and as a way to scrounge success after his awful experiences in Gravity Falls, then he would need them back later on, right?

And if he trusts Stanley to take the journal away, then that means... he would have needed to ask Stanley to come back.

So no. He was not sending away his brother for good after 10+ years of radio silence. He was initiating contact again. He was extending a lifeline to the one person he could trust in the world, knowing that the separation would be temporary.

He even says that this would be Stan’s redeeming moment in Ford’s eyes — after years of what he thought to be an intentional sabotage on his brother’s part, Ford was ready to extend this lifeline again.

I know what you’re thinking: In that case, why not clear that up for Stan? Why not emphasize that he was not sending him away for good? Why all the vagueness and awful wording?

Well, for one thing, Ford was running on fumes, with no sleep at all. He was exhausted and stressed and half-insane. So, we can give some leeway.

Secondly, Ford fails to grasp a lot of social interactions, and his tendency to botch them would definitely be in the spotlight here.

Third of all (minor black light spoilers here, again: Eloo kdv vkrzq wkdw kh frxog olwhudoob pdqlsxodwh Irug'v yrfdexodub, olnh zkhq kh hudvhv wkh zrug "exughq" — vr zh fdq'w uxoh rxw Eloo pdqlsxodwlqj wklv frqyhuvdwlrq hlwkhu.)

TLDR: Ford was going to ask Stanley to return with the journal after he found a way to destroy Bill, and after Stan had earned his trust in a time when Ford could trust no one else. Taking the journal “to the ends of the earth” was to be a temporary solution until Bill was gone, and afterwards, they would reconnect.

Bonus angst: Imagine Stanley reading this in journal 3, and realizing the misunderstanding.... :(

#Fordtato's Theories #gravity falls #journal 3

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eregyrn-falls · 8 years ago

Note

In the Reverse Portal AU, How long do you think it would take for Ford to get Stan back on earth, realistically? While Ford doesn't have to teach himself physics and the other necessary information, Ford does have to worry about Bill driving him insane, The Society of the Blind Eye, and possibly re-designing the portal so that a rift will NOT form at all.

(First, apologies for the delay on answering this! I had this huge long answer written out – because of course I did – and I lost it all, which is always disheartening. Second, in the interim, @stanfordpines-phd posted meta on a related question, here. I’ve only read the first paragraph of their post so far, but once I’ve got this rewritten I’ll go back and read over it, and see how close we both were to the same thoughts. :)

Let me say, too, that I’ve read a few story takes on this idea already, and the variations are always interesting! But what I’m getting here is, what if there was a variation in which Ford really does start immediately to try to get his brother back? I’m not sure I’ve seen that done, and yeah, I’m into that.

To get there, I’m proceeding from the assumption that the act of losing Stan through the portal would shock Ford out of his guilt / anger / paranoia spiral. This almost happened in canon, after all – even considering the stakes, and the way they pushed each other’s buttons, and Ford’s state of mind, the moment Stan was seriously hurt (by being branded by the symbol on the console), Ford *stopped*, and was basically jolted into the most genuine response I think we’d seen from him in those scenes. If Stan hadn’t come up swinging, I almost think the fight could have ended right there, with Ford’s concern for his brother defusing the situation long enough for them to talk. So I feel like it’s reasonable to say that an even bigger shock – losing Stan entirely – is enough to set Ford on an entirely different track than the one he’d been on.

Obviously, this is SUPER LONG, so let’s put the rest under a cut…

(Which, to review: he had decided to hide the instructions to working the portal, and once that was accomplished, figure out how to destroy Bill; or, die trying. What Ford wrote in Journal 3 indicates he was going to hike back up to the cave to see whether there were more clues about how to destroy Bill there. A lot of people have asked: why did Ford not disassemble the portal FIRST? I’ve thought about this a lot, and I usually came down on the side of thinking that he considered the instructions in the Journals equally dangerous and decided to prioritize them. He was already afraid, at that point, that Bill would possess others in Gravity Falls – see his experience at the truck stop. Not only was he afraid of Bill possessing him again, if he slept; but, probably, of Bill possessing someone else, and using their body to come stop him from destroying the Portal; kill him; and/or, use the existing instructions in the Journals to get the portal working again. However… I also had a new thought, having now really absorbed what Ford wrote about going back to the cave to look for a way to destroy Bill. What if he thought that he might *need* the portal in order to do that? For example, what if he found out that Bill would be vulnerable to destruction while in the act of coming through the portal? That sort of thing. If Ford destroyed the portal, he would keep Bill away from the physical world… temporarily. But, what if Bill found another pawn to guide through the process of rebuilding the portal? Separating the instructions was a step towards preventing that. And it would have sucked to destroy the portal, only to find out that he needed it. Note: I’m not saying that the whole “my life’s work!” thing didn’t also factor in; but by the time Ford is actively thinking of trying to stop / destroy Bill, that can’t have been the only reason he hesitated to disassemble the portal.)

Okay, so next, in order to figure out how long it would take, we need to figure out some other variables.

Ford has to worry about Bill possessing him. That’s definitely a big problem. To be honest, I’m not really sure how Ford expected to keep that problem at bay, should Stan have actually left with J1. There’s really only so long Ford could go without sleep. And you’d think that the more Ford worked against Bill, the more Bill would try to overpower him. But okay, let’s say that Ford’s plan immediately changes from “finding a way to destroy Bill / destroying the portal”, to “figuring out how to get Stan back”. What could protect Ford from being possessed by Bill? Bill-proofing the Shack. Ford would need to get some unicorn hair. And he has to do it fairly quickly, before Bill gets some natural opportunity to possess him again.

(Actually… if Ford is working on the portal again, I think Bill would leave him alone. After all, isn’t that Ford doing what Bill wants? Bill is arrogant enough to think that things will go his way if that portal is just turned on again, even if Ford is trying to thwart him. However, while Ford might reason this out, I don’t think he would trust his safety to that reasoning. Even if Bill is leaving Ford alone, Ford would try to find a way to protect himself.)

The SOTBE. This might or might not be a problem. We know from the Journal that they’re already formed, but they aren’t yet targeting him. (They run away from him, in the only encounter he reports on in J3.) If they DO decide to target him, that’s a big problem. But he only encounters them once he goes in town. There seems to be an implication that if they’re afraid enough of Ford to run away from him, they’re also afraid of the Shack. Unless something happens to change that status quo, I’m not sure I see them mounting an attack on the Shack.

Redesigning the portal so that a rift doesn’t form when he reactivates it to retrieve Stan…

On the one hand, to do that, presumably Ford would need to track down Fiddleford. Partly because that’s what the Better World AU suggests happened (or does it? I’ll get to that in a moment). And partly because since Ford needed Fidds’ help to build the portal in the first place, it stands to reason that he’d need an engineer’s help to make any major modifications.

… But the thing is, Ford isn’t actually worried about a rift forming. He doesn’t seem to know that that’s a possibility. His fear of the portal destroying the world is about Bill and his Nightmare Realm friends *coming through* into the real world. He never mentions instability or the danger of a rift, prior to going through the portal himself. Even after Ford returns, he doesn’t suspect that danger until he’s actually in the process of dismantling the portal. He thinks that destroying it shuts the interdimensional gateway for good – until he spots the tiny rift just floating there. *Then* he’s horrified.

In the Better World AU, it doesn’t go into specifics at all about how p!Ford managed to keep Bill from possessing him. It only says that p!Ford and p!Fidds built an addition that allowed them to use the portal while bypassing a connection to the Nightmare Realm. It’s been said before, but there’s so much left out of the account of the Better World AU, that it has to arouse suspicion as to whether p!Fidds actually told real-Ford everything accurately, and Ford just condensed it when writing it; or whether p!Fidds gave him limited or inaccurate information, and Ford filled in the blanks from his own wishful thinking.

The thing I can’t quite figure out yet is this: so, Ford knows that turning on the portal puts the world in danger, because Bill wants to come through with his buddies from the Nightmare Realm. Okay. But then, why has Bill not done that already? The portal has been turned on twice so far. Once to “test” it, and once when Stan was lost through it. What about those times wasn’t sufficient for Bill to use it? Was it length of time? Was it where it was connected to?

But both of those things seem unlikely. In the initial portal test with Fiddleford, the portal was active for over a minute. It’s already on when Ford and Fidds go walking up to it carrying the test dummy; it stays on, with an apparently stable wormhole, through the entirety of the rest of the scene. It’s still apparently on when the scene ends, 1:06 later. And it WAS connected to the Nightmare Realm – that’s the whole point, seeing that and seeing Bill in his “true form” is what drove Fidds mad to begin with. It’s only on for 20 seconds the second time (at least in canon, when Ford goes through), but again we know it was connected to the Nightmare Realm, since that’s where Ford goes. So what more did Bill actually require, if he couldn’t use either of those opportunities? I’m not sure we know?

So anyway, I’m going to say that in the simplest possible scenario – I think that Ford could have gotten the portal back up and running in a couple of weeks.

He has to take time to go out and get some unicorn hair, to protect himself from Bill while he’s working in the Shack. Given the snowy conditions, that might take a bit more time than it took in canon (which was 1 day); on the other hand, Ford doesn’t have to waste time trying to please the unicorns, the way Mabel did. I’m going to just assume that Ford showing up with his crossbow and Stan’s brass knuckles would be sufficient to get him some of the unicorn hair.

Possibly, he combined this expedition with a trip to the cave, to see if there WERE any hints for guarding against Bill or defeating Bill. So that might add another day. And I suspect he’d go and retrieve the other two Journals; although I don’t think that would take very long.

He doesn’t need to contact Fiddleford, if he doesn’t know that he might need to fix or create an addition to the portal in order to guard against a rift forming. If he doesn’t try to contact Fidds and reconcile with him, that saves time. (But you could do a variation on this, by saying that he does want to contact Fidds, in order to build what it’s said they built in the Better World AU: a way to use the portal while bypassing the Nightmare Realm. However, Ford might not even be sure this would be a good plan. If he thinks / knows the portal connects directly to the Nightmare Realm anyway, then he’d know that’s the first place he’d have to look for Stan.)

If, after getting the unicorn hair and protecting the Shack, Ford is finally able to get some rest, he might also be thinking a bit more clearly. So he might, on his own, come to the realization that the portal just being on, and connected to the Nightmare Realm, is somehow not enough for Bill to come through. (Especially since it was turned on for such a long time during the first “test”.) He may not be able to figure out what it is Bill is waiting for, in order to prevent that. But it may allow him to reason that just turning it back on in order to retrieve Stan is no more dangerous than the past two times it was turned on. He might also wonder / theorize that the fact that the gateway now opens into the unicorn-hair-spell protected Shack might actually keep Bill from coming through it.

He needs more fuel. I’m assuming that what happened in canon – with the fuel gauges for the portal hitting zero just as Ford is lost through it – also happened here. There’s apparently a source of the radioactive waste that’s needed nearby, but Ford still has to go GET it. (Pro: he has Stan’s car. Con: deep snow.) He may have had Fiddleford’s help the first time they got a supply of it. On the other hand, apparently it only took Stan one night to get what he needed, by himself.

Finally, there’s a scanning function built into the portal – at least, there is when Stan activates it in “Scary-oke”, and it appears to be scanning the sectors; the assumption is that it’s scanning for Ford, so that the portal can form a gateway to where he is. This part of the portal machinery isn’t mentioned in J3. It could certainly be something Ford and Fidds built originally – on the theory that, if the portal were really to be used for exploring the multiverse, you’d want a way to lock onto the people who went through it, to get them back. At any rate, in canon, it seems to take more than 10 days for the scan to complete – if, that is, that’s what Stan is waiting for to activate the portal for real. (It’s interesting that Stan starts the scanning process, and only much later goes to get fuel to actually start the portal. The last firm date in J3 is July 29, the date of the confrontation with the SOTBE. After that, we have Soos’s birthday and Globnar, the Woodstick Festival, and the Northwest Mansion mystery, however long all of those take, before we get to NWHS.)

So, again – simplest possible scenario – Ford would need several days, to a week, to accomplish some of the tasks and errands above, by himself. Possibly including the scanning so that the portal can lock onto Stan – the extra time tacked onto that week would be for how long that took. Otherwise, I *think* that once he accomplishes those tasks, he could activate the portal and, hopefully, get Stan back.

Obviously, if you wanted to complicate this for it to take longer, you could certainly add in various problems. Maybe Ford DOES think he needs Fiddleford’s help, so he has to go through the process of finding him, reconciling with him, and then they have to do whatever it is they are going to do. Maybe the SOTBE does prove to be more of a problem than they seem to have been in canon, and time has to be taken to deal with them. That sort of thing.

But if you want “fastest”, that’s my guess. Couple of weeks.

Also, what happens afterwards could also be interesting. Once Ford gets Stan back, what happens? How do they THEN address the problem of the portal, and Bill? The unicorn hair would have kept Ford safe inside the Shack while he was working on this stuff, but they’d need a more permanent solution in order for Ford to live a normal life, not to mention, to keep the world safe. Do they actually reconcile and work together, or are there further complications? Did a Rift form while the portal was on, to retrieve Stan? ( @stanfordpines-phd makes a good point at the start of their meta post here, about why a rift didn’t form the first 2 times the portal was on; and why it probably did so in 2012 because of the passage of time. So – maybe not.)

(Final note: having now read through @stanfordpines-phd full meta post – yeah, although they were answering a slightly different question, we DID hit on some of the same ideas. :) Including both of us thinking of the unicorn hair! Their answer goes in a different direction, though – another variation on this storyline that I’d LOVE to read! Though, I don’t entirely agree that for the story to be interesting, Ford would have to fail to get Stan back at first. I do think that WOULD be interesting! But I also think you could make an interesting story out of the problems they still have to deal with once Stan is safely back – foremost, how DO they defeat Bill once and for all, in order to keep Ford’s mind, and the world, safe? And, just the story of Ford and Stan truly reconciling at that point would be interesting; though I’ve also seen some stuff – including @as-be-low‘s “Time Has Changed Me (and Left Me Full of Doubt)” – in which Stan accidentally falling through is such a traumatic experience for him that he is just as angry at Ford, as canon Ford was at Stan when he returned. That sort of thing.)

#gravity falls #meta #stanford pines #stanley pines #bill cipher #fiddleford mcgucket #reverse portal au #long post

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