#but I'm not gonna lie. I love the Gideon inclusion

[tbob-enthusiast]

EEEEEEEEEEE

@illusioncanthurtme @bee-snail two for one zodiac special! something in the water today i guess lol

i don't have the start or end of my au fleshed out enough to really comment on the zodiac with confidence. while i know for certain they're not present at the start, i'm not sure how i want bill's defeat to go down. but no matter, because for at least most of the story they're wandering the wastelands.

when i was first coming up with this au, my idea had been that it would start when gideon is in jail. instead of making the deal that enabled bill to possess blendin, bill walks gideon through a ritual that will give bill a temporary physical form using gideon's blood and hair. he then uses this form to attack the pines family directly and with more of his typical abilities, allowing him to get the upper hand much more quickly and with a more serious threat.

what i liked about this idea was that it dragged gideon in from the start and really shifted more of the blame onto him. as funny as i find it for it to be "the pines family saves the world and gideon's there also," i think it brings him into the family dynamic more if ford is able to relate to him. the pines family can only be as mad at gideon as they are at ford, because both are guilty of bringing bill to gravity falls. it also allows gideon to have a clear path to redemption and gives him a role model in ford, which would be fun to have him and dipper have tension over.

what i don't like about this idea is that i feel like it'd be too complicated of a way to start, i think it introduces too many questions i don't know if i want to either answer or pretend not to see. i've toyed around with bill having the same show-down with the pines family, but it's after he shatters the rift and blendin fucks off, where instead of retreating, ford and dipper go after mabel, which prevents bills from taking her hostage. i've toyed around with it taking place right after bill captures the pines family post-failed zodiac. i don't know! i'm still leaning towards gideon and i'll just suck it up lol

but anyway, either way, the zodiac has not been assembled.

but like i said, i'm not sure how i want it to end yet! the first half of the au is horror, with everyone in bill's playpen, but the second half is scifi.

spoilers:

the pines + gideon are eventually able to escape the fearamid once time baby crashes the party. ford is able to use the distraction to lead the family away and find a space ship. because not everyone on earth is part of bill's main crew, and as much as they like to pretend at being demons, at the end of the day they're aliens and would have to travel across the nightmare realm to get to the rift.

so ford is able to find a ship he knows how to pilot manually, rips out the ai, and is able to get the family to one of the revolution base/refugee camps where he knows people from his portal days. from there the team are able to recover and regroup while ford hammers out his plan to return to alternate earth and beg fiddleford to help him build another huge fuck off gun, because HIS is back at the mystery shack and bill has that place on lock.

ive been toying for weeks with how i want the final show down to go down. do i want ford to kill him with the gun? do i want stan to pose as ford and kill him with the gun (because if he fails then at least ford has the knowledge and resources to keep the kids safe)? do i want it to fail like in the show and they HAVE to summon the zodiac? i don't know yet! work in progress!