cant-face-the-dark

[nenoname]

Journal 3’s references to Stan

Post-Weirdmageddon

“I bristled at the idea of sharing my accomplishments with anyone. I shunned my brother for one dumb mistake, and I shunned Fiddleford for having the nerve to try to stop me from dooming the world.”

“I just couldn’t get over the idea of myself as the lone hero.. and it was Stanley who paid the price.”

“Trust shouldn’t be given unconditionally, but it should be given a chance to be earned. There is strength in having the humility to work with and sacrifice for others- a strength I now realize was in my brother all along.”

"Stanley Pines was the man who saved the world, not me. I spent so long thinking he was a selfish jerk, and he turned out to be the most selfless man I've ever met in any dimension. If I'm totally honest, I must admit that he's a hero and I'm... a hero's brother. And I'm okay with that.

Thank goodness he is recovering his wonderfully twisted mind. And I vow to spend the rest of my days making things right between us... If only he gives me a chance."

“When Stanley and I were kids, we would often read tales of the Sibling Brothers- about two boys who dedicated their lives to exploring mysteries together. With a new anomaly to investigate, I’ve been thinking about those tales more and more lately.”

"Dipper is no longer my apprentice, and Fiddleford has a genuine career as an inventor ahead of him- so I think it's time for the Pines Twins to join forces again. At least, I hope so. I haven't discussed my idea with Stan yet. But if I know my brother, he will jump at the chance to find "money and babes.""

"The path before us is clear. And it looks like this:"

“I had suggested to Dipper that because of all the misfortune caused by them, we burn [the Journals] in the last campfire of the summer. Mabel, Soos & Stan all seemed very excited by this notion.”

“You hold a record of one man’s folly and the kindness of a family that saved him from himself. It’s never too late to learn that growing old doesn’t have to mean growing up.”

Other sections: Pre-Portal, Post-Portal, Lost Journal pages + Ford's letters

[sweatshirt-ninja]

WELCOME 2.0

Howdy and how do ya do!? Seems like you've managed to stumble upon my side of the tracks. Congrats! The name is Sweatshirt, I'm 20, and my pronouns are she/her. I'm a lesbian on the asexual spectrum(Demisexual/Aegosexual)!

My blog is for a more mature audiences. I don't really reblog NSFW work on here and my likes are hidden, but every once in awhile I do decided to reblog risque content, so take warning minors and people who aren't into stuff like that.

This blog is also open to almost everyone. I ain't the type of person to judge what people like to consume in fiction. I'm open to all sorts of ships even the very problematic ones. I don't truly have a DNI here. As long as you aren't being a jerk to me and other people we should be fine (tho take warning, I do tend to block folks who have proship DNI in their bios because I never know if they're the deranged types that will say heinous stuff about people).

Other Places To Find Me!

Instagram- sweatshirt-ninja

Main A03- Warriortheninja (For mostly wholesome AU and OC related fics. You'll find some explicit stuff but most of it is tame)

Twitter- Sweatshirt_Ninja

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And More!

What You Will Find

Here you will find some of my ramblings! I every once in awhile will post art, some fanfics, and talk about my AUs and OCs for anyone who will listen. I've mostly talked about Ninjago thus far, but I have branched my fandoms, so you'll find me talking more about Gravity Falls and Star Wars....

Strawpage ->

Alternate Universes

Ninjago

Royals AU- This is the main AU I've talked mostly here. It's where my original characters for this fandom thrive. This AU's story kinda stays the same but the backgrounds for certain characters are different. Like Lloyd for example. He's a royal blah, blah, blah..

Last of Their Kind (LOTKAU)- Where Garmadon (and Mystake) are the last oni in all of the Sixteen Realms. Wu is also the last dragon in all of Ninjago. They stay in hiding. Have families. Kinda wholesome AU.

Nautica AU- Subnautica x Ninjago. Kinda straight forward

Train Zone AU- Wu and Garmadon accidentally go back in time and meet Warrior (OC) and her gang of knights in a brand new world. It involves Garmadon and Wu getting along with people that aren't the typical Ninjagarians and it's found family fluff.

Craftian Wind AU- An AU where Morro and Warrior meet way before Possession. Morro is alive (not well) and Warrior isn't a fully fledged knight yet. Angst and fluffy stuff.

Gravity Falls

Mystery Apples- An AU that introduces my OC, Cora, a mysterious stranger that just want to live a normal human life. The story mostly stays the same, but Cora learns that she has ties to the Pines Family that are thicker than water. Basically Cora is Dipper and Mabel's lost cousin.

A Haunting in Gravity Falls- Stanford goes to Gravity Falls to study the strange and paranormal. Learning about the town's bizarre occupants, documenting them in his journals, and basically living how he did in canon, but what's different is that his cabin is haunted by the ghosts of the land. Since he's bought that piece of land from the Northwest's at a cheap price, Ford learns why it was so god damn cheap and its because its cursed as fuck. Due to this, Ford goes down a path of learning the occult, opening his home to Bill who is still a demon but is more like...The Conjuring level demon. Bill fucks over Ford. Stuff like that. Working on a fic about it. BTW: Cora is involved with this AU and that's because I forgot to mention that she's Ford's biologically impossible child. Don't eat strange fruits in the woods, kids!!!

[fordanoia]

So anyways, I now fully believe Journal 3 is cursed.

For undisclosed reasons, I’m reading through Journal 3 again and the very first page we get this.

“We believed this to be either a prank by high schoolers or the ramblings of a local fraud. But since discovering this book, a number of our troopers have had headaches and disturbing nightmares.”

The funniness of ‘ramblings of a local fraud’ aside - the book IS causing people to have headaches and nightmares. Which is a bit too sus for me to not think something’s up.

Also.....,,, highkey that’s Paranoid!Ford symptoms there. Which leads to some fun possibilities like:

-was the book in part causing Ford these symptoms back in the day -is some of bill’s energy trapped in the journal somehow and that’s what’s going on -is bill honestly just hanging around the journal and haunting people that pick it up -was the book infused from ford’s own suffering and is now a cursed object that causes these same effects in anyone that’s around it or reads it -did it become cursed after falling through the bottomless pit and who knows what wormhole or other dimensions before finally reaching our dimension

all of which i love, catch me writing a fic using one of these concepts man

[gosecretscribbles]

Stanuary 2019 Week 1 Bonding

“GET BACK HERE!”

“AAAGH!”

Stan chased after the tourist, brandishing his cane in one hand and the crossbow in the other.  The guy had tried to pay for his tour with a baby goat!  What did he think this was, Medieval Europe?!  Goats were not currency!  Goats weren't even profitable!  They just ate, pooped, and stank!

Stan thought he was in decent shape for an old fat guy, but the skinny farmer sprinted to his truck like all the tax collectors in the state were on his heels.  Plus that stupid baby goat was prancing around Stan and tripping him up.  Even so, Stan nearly made it to the truck when the farmer hit the gas.  The engine roared to life and dirt sprayed in Stan's face.  He skidded to a stop, coughing and scraping at his eyes.  

There was a thunk and Stan looked down.  The kid had keeled right over, all four legs straight out.  

“Oh, great, now he's dead!  YOU PAID ME WITH A DEAD GOAT, YA MORON!”

He swung up the crossbow and fired, but the truck hit a bend in the road.  Instead of popping a tire the bolt just hit the license plate and jarred it loose.  It fell off with a noisy rattle as the truck swung around the curve and disappeared, the other goats' bleating quickly fading from earshot.  

Swearing a blue streak under his breath, Stan went to retrieve the license plate.  Never know when you'd need one to throw the cops off your trail.  

Now he had to decide what to do with a dead baby goat.  The next tourist bus wasn't coming until noon, so he had about an hour to figure it out.  He didn't really want to stuff it, but he couldn't think of anything else to do with it.  Hey, maybe he could make his new mechanic do it instead – what was his name, Zeus or something? Sure, that'd work.  He just had to get the goat out of the way until Soup came back from school.  

He reached the goat and bent down to grab its leg.

“Baa-aa-aah.”

“AAH!”

He jumped back.  The goat's ears and tail twitched, then it rolled over and looked up at him.  

“Baa-aa-aah,” it repeated insistently.

“Yeesh, give me a heart attack already,” Stan growled, one hand over his chest.  “If you're looking for food, you're lying in it.  Grass, meet goat.  Goat, meet lunch.  Now stay outta the way, I got a business to run.”

“Baa-aa-aah.”

He went inside to work on more pun-related exhibits for the museum. Those wax figures had brought in a ton of money when he'd first set them up, but business had gone dry a week ago, and he needed another money maker and fast.  Those portal parts didn't come cheap.

The goat bleated from the porch for a solid twenty minutes, then he heard it clopping away.  Stan snorted, then went back to gluing googly eyes on a plastic octopus.  Maybe eight eyes, so it was like a combo spider-octopus?  Yeah, that'd work.  Now he just had to think of a catchy name for it.  Or maybe Octo-spider?  Arachnipus?  Octo-Eyes? Hmm, maybe that'd work...

Stan came out of the Shack in time to greet the next tourist bus.  He didn't see the kid anywhere, so many the dumb thing had wandered into the woods.  Perfect, one less thing to worry about.  He put everyone in the carts and drove 'em out to see random stuff in the forest, like the Tree of the Screaming Tourist.  He told them the eerily twisted bark was an actual tourist whose spirit had been sucked into the tree when he refused to pay for the tour.  (Everyone was suddenly very eager to pay him for the tour.  And tip him.  Generously.)

He drove 'em back and waved them into the bus.  Then he headed back to the Gift Shop.  His pockets were practically bulging with cash.  He definitely had to use that Screaming Tree story more often!  Even if it kind of freaked him out.  Wait, hadn't Ford's journal's mentioned something about –

“Hi, Mr. Pines!”

“AAH!”

He jumped back for the second time that day, glaring down at Deuce, who was standing innocently in the doorway of the Gift Shop.

“Geez, kid, make some noise when you move!”

“Sure, Mr. Pines!  By the way, I didn't know you had a pet goat!”

Deuce moved aside.  That dumb stinky nuisance was sitting on the floor, legs sprawled everywhere, its floppy tail thumping like a puppy's.  

“Baa-aa-aah!”

He groaned.  “That's not a pet.  And get it out of here! Smells like a moldy haystack, and I got some new attractions I need to make for the museum.”  He stepped over the goat and strode to the craft counter in the corner.  “Octo-Eyes was a huge hit! Taxidermic monstrosities are gonna make me a fortune!”

“Couldn't we make this little guy an attraction too?” Moose asked behind him. “I bet you could even give him a punny name!  Like 'Cutebacabra'!”

Stan stopped and turned around.  The goat looked up at him with those weird sideways pupils.  

“Yeah,” Stan said slowly, holding up both hands to frame the little moneymaker.  “Yeah, the Cutebacabra!  Glue on some fake wings, coupla cow legs – maybe some red paint drooling from its mouth! Ha, I love it!”

Bruce beamed at him.  “Thanks, Mr. Pines!”

“Kid, gather every spare stuffed limb I've got and a ton of crazy glue. Then go set up a display for him in the museum.  This creepy cuteness is gonna be our next main attraction!”  

Exactly forty-three minutes later, Stan was showing a new set of tourists into the museum.  He'd already taken them to the Tree of the Screaming Tourist, and now he was gonna milk 'em dry.  Zeus had rigged up a little stage and a red velvet curtain for Chompers.  With a single grand gesture, Stan pulled it aside.  Instantly the crowd went 'AAAAH!' and 'AWWW!'

He grinned and gestured grandly.  Sluice had made it a little vest and glued on every spare animal limb they had.  “That's right, folks, the rare baby Cutebacabra!  The only one in the world!  Pictures are five – no, fifty dollars each!”

Immediately tourists stuffed good ol' Grants into his hands and snapped pictures, flashes going off in every direction.

The goat's eyes went wide and it keeled over, legs straight out.  

A kid in the crowd screamed.  “OH MY GOD IT'S DEAD!”

“WE'RE CURSED!”

“RUN FOR YOUR LIIIIFE!”

“Oh come on!” Stan shouted.  He didn't bother chasing the tourists – he'd pick-pocketed them while they had their eyes on the goat, and he knew they didn't have even two bucks left among the lot of them.  But why in the name of Paul Bunyan did the goat keep playing dead?!  If it had done that two seconds earlier it would've cost him all those picture fees!

“I'm back with the goat feed, Mr. Pines,” Puce said, poking his head into the Museum.  He was dragging a forty-pound bag of feed.  “You didn't give me any money, so I had to pay Mr. Sprotts with three hours of child labor.”  Then he caught sight of the goat, turned white, and dropped the bag.  “SWEET MOSES HE'S DEAD?!”

“No he's not,” Stan scowled.  He reached out and poked the goat with a foot.  The goat twitched, then flipped upright and started gnawing on one of the cow hoofs taped to its back.  “See?”

The goat bleated and head-butted him.

“Aw, he likes you!” Spruce said.

“Ugh, get it offa me.  The darn thing's defective!”  He paused.  “Then again, if I could get it to do it on command...”  Imagine the look on people's faces if he walked his goat into traffic, then made them think they'd hit his Prize German-Australian Longhair Goat!  They'd pay through the nose just to keep him from suing them!

“Eh, he probably just has that myotonic thing.  Or maybe it was myopia?  I always get those two mixed up.”

“Mia-what?”

The gumdrop shrugged.  “Myotonia.  Mr. Sprotts told me about it.  You know how people get startled, and then they freeze up?  It's like that, but for goats.  And it lasts for longer, like their muscles seize up or something.  It doesn't hurt them or anything,” he added, “but it is a genetic thing.  Mr. Sprotts said a lot of his goats got it from the toxic waste dump.”

“So he's being literally scared stiff?”

Moose laughed.  “Good one, Mr. Pines!”

The goat had finished chewing on the cow hoof and proceeded to gnaw on Stan's pantleg.

“Whoops!” Soup pulled the goat away, then set it down in front of the bag of feed and tore it open.  “There ya go, little Gompers!  This'll taste waaaay better.  Trust me, I tried it!”

“Baa-aa-aah!”

Stan watched the goat eating.  “Hey Swoose.”

“It's 'Soos', Mr. Pines!”

“Whatever. You're sayin' the goat just keeps getting scared?”

“Yep!”

“'Cuz it's genetic?”

“Uh, I guess so?”

“Well NOT ON MY WATCH!  After one day of Stan’s Scare-A-Thon Therapy Session, this goat’s gonna be so desensitized it’ll never faint again!”

First, Stan got Moose to wire his satellite to pirate-stream horror movies from Japan.  (Watching these also traumatized Puce, which Stan found hilarious.)  Next Stan hired a clown (who he did not pay) and then practice his jump scares (which made Soos scream so loud it scared off all the birds in a three-mile radius).  After that, Stan converted the Museum into a haunted house, complete with sheet-ghosts, cobwebs, and a looped sound track of death metal, complete with screaming.  He shoved Gompers in and locked it tight.  

He didn't realize until he went back three hours later that he'd also locked the child labor. Moose had collapsed on the floor in the middle of the room – but Gompers was stumbling around bleating to himself.  It didn't look like he'd played dead at all!

Stan grinned.  “Alright, now we're makin' progress!”

“That's great, Mr. Pines,” Bruce gasped.  “You should – oh sweet burrito angels – you should totally save this stuff for Summerween.”

“Summer-what?”

“Summerween!” Soup struggled to sit up and collapsed.  “It's – it's this holiday where – oh man I'm having a panic attack.”

Gompers clonked over, bleated, and started chewing on Soos' face.

Stan roared with laughter and slapped his knee.  “Ha!  This is goat's the best!  Alright, Floose –”

“Soos.”

“Get ready for the main event.  Something even scarier than Japanese horror movies or that weird mold growing in the corner.”

Sue sat up.  “Okay, but if I don't come back, tell my grandma I love her and give all my stuff to charity.”

“The Mystery Shack appreciates your donations!”

Night was falling and the full moon was out.  Luckily Soup had fixed the golf cart right down to the headlights, so they trundled along the beaten road in relative safety.  Gompers and Soos were in the backseat, the kid's arms wrapped around Gompers like it was a really smelly plushy.  He grinned.  When he was done that goat would be almost as hardcore as Stan himself!

When they got close enough, Stan stopped the truck, hustled around to the trunk and started handing a stuff to Soup.  

“Okay. Run ahead and put these all around the tree ahead.  The batteries are all dying so the light'll flicker all weird and creepy.  This one has a full battery.  Lie down at the bottom of the tree, and then when I give the signal, shine it right at the bark.”

“Sure, Mr. Pines!  Which tree is this again?”

“The one with a human soul was trapped in its bark writhing in agony!”

“Ok!”

Stan gave him a shove and then hustled back to the cart, where Gompers was currently chewing on the back seat.  He hopped back in the driver's seat, waited three seconds and then drove slowly up to the Tree of the Screaming Tourist.  It was hard to see the shape of the messed-up bark, which would make it even creepier when Zeus lit up the flashlights.  

He parked, took his portable radio out of the trunk, and then grabbed Gompers.  He set the goat down in front of the tree, backed up, and hovered his finger over the “play” button.

“Okay, Sluice...NOW!”

From the radio, a hollow scream filled the air and the whole tree lit up with a flickering yellow light.  

“Ha! That's perfect!”

“Baa-aa-aah,” said Gompers.

He grinned, but before he could tell Zoop to step it up, the lights suddenly flickered.  They turned orange, then red.  The radio suddenly crackled with static and he dropped it as electricity singed his hand.  The bark of the tree started moving and a huge ghost-y thing ballooned out of it, just a massive face made of fire and fury. Stan backed up with a shout.  Several tree branches snapped and started bending like spider arms.  One of them swung around from the back of the tree – and a certain pear-shaped mechanic was dangling from its twigs.  

He waved.  “Hi, Mr. Pines!  I'm a hostage!”

The spirit's yellow eyes turned on him.  Its pupils went red. “YOOUUUUU!”

“AAH!”

He sprinted for the golf cart, but the spirit lashed out and smashed it with a bark-covered arm.  He grabbed Gompers and held it up.  

“JUST TAKE THE GOAT, TAKE THE GOAT!”

“Do you know how long my spirit has been stuck in that tree, completely alone, just listening to those stupid squirrel-squids chatter about acorns and sushi?  And after years of waiting for you to come back, you finally bring people to visit me – and you tell every last one of them how terrifying I am, so they'll never!  Come!  BACK!”  The face swelled until it blotted out the sky.  Its heat seared his skin. “AM I SCARY ENOUGH FOR YOU NOW, STAN PINES?!”

He screamed and tried to run, dropping the kid, but she swooped down and grabbed him up.  She lifted him higher and higher, squeezing him so tightly he could feel his bones creak.  He could barely breathe!  He had a funny feeling he wasn't the Stan Pines she was talking about, but he couldn't get enough air to tell her that!

“Um, excuse me?  Ms. Tree Spirit?”

They both looked at Soos, who was wiggling one of his chubby little hands to get the spirit's attention.  

“Hrrrrr,” she growled.

He smiled.  “Oh, I'm a him, actually!  Although I do have a feminine softness.  It sounds like you're mad because you've been lonely for so long, right?  But Mr. Pines has been bringing people to see you all the time!”

“They are TERRIFIED of me!”

“Not everyone.”  He pointed.

Gompers was standing on the ground below, absently chewing on a fallen stick. The ghost growled and moved closer, her face distorting until her burning yellow eyes were the size of whole cars, and her face was a gaping maw dripping with reddish flame, mere inches from the goat's puny face.

“DO YOU FEAR ME, LITTLE GOAT?!” she boomed, and her voice was so loud and deep the trees nearby actually shivered and creaked on their roots.

Gompers blinked.  

“Baa-aa-aah,” he said, and resumed his chewing.  

“Hmm.”

“Good goat,” Stan managed.  The spirit scowled and squeezed a little harder.

“But this is not what we agreed to. I don't want people to be afraid of me!”

“But scariness is part of the fun!” Soos said earnestly.  “Plus it's a fun way to spend time together!  My dad never hangs out with me, but Mr. Pines and I watched a horror movie marathon.  And even though I wet myself a couple of times, I wouldn't trade that time for the world.  I'll bet the families who visited you remember how frightening and fun it was, and they'll probably come back to see you again next year!”

Stan could see the spirit thinking it over.  

“Baa-aa-aah,” added the goat.

The spirit snorted and gave Stan a hard look, those ruby peepers staring right into his soul.  “You will keep your promise, Stan Pines?  You will not leave me to suffer in isolation?”

“Guarantee it,” he wheezed.  “Main attraction.  Every tour.  Can't breathe.”

“Very well.  But if you break your promise one more time, the woods will never be safe for you again.”

She let go of Soos and Stan, who hit the forest floor with a dull thump. The spirit withdrew into the bark, lifting her arms to become branches again, while the bark of the trunk twisted and rippled back to its previous shape.  Stan waited for a second, but the tree didn't so much as twitch.  

He sprang to his feet and scooped up the goat.  “Ha!  You did it!  You beautiful monster, you really did it!  You looked that tree-thing straight in the big yellow eye and didn't even twitch!  I bet this goat could handle the frigging apocalypse without batting an eye!”

“Probably!” Soos agreed cheerfully.  

Stan smirked, then mashed Soos' head in a noogie.  “Ya didn't do too bad yourself, there, ya midget.”

“Really?!”

“Uh, are those actual stars in your eyes?”

“For you, Mr. Pines, I would go full-on anime.”

“Don't make this weird, kid.  Now let's see if the golf cart's drivable. I'm allergic to all this bonding and I left my old-man tonic in the Shack.”

“Soda isn't tonic, Mr. Pines.”

“Says you.”

“Baa-aa-aah.”

A/N

“A myotonic goat, otherwise known as the fainting goat, is a domestic goat whose muscles freeze for roughly 3 seconds when the goat feels panic. Though painless, this generally results in the animal collapsing on its side. The characteristic is caused by a hereditary genetic disorder called myotonia congenita. When startled, younger goats will stiffen and fall over. Older goats learn to spread their legs or lean against something when startled, and often they continue to run about in an awkward, stiff-legged shuffle.”

- from a-source-I-forgot-to-save-the-website-for

Also Nour386 came up with the idea about why the Tree was screaming!  I had a different idea but this one is so much better!!!

@nour386

[novantinuum]

oH MAN so I have to share this… y’know how there’s the general fandom view that Ford’s influence was technically with us the whole time “through the journal,” right? 

well, I was ruminating over this today and sort of spouted a bunch of ideas @witete (sorRY ahahah XD) and we bounced some things back and forth and came up with an awful angst AU and I’m vaguely proud of it so okay here we go…

The sum of all of it: Ford’s trapped in the mindscape forever after Bill Cipher basically murders his body, but Bill’s threat still remains and Ford ends up learning to manipulate objects around him (i.e. like the journal) to try and warn people of this. Things do not go well.

I’ll babble on more under the cut. XD

oKAY so this likely takes place in some sort of rare universe where young Ford- post betrayal- actually asks for Stanley’s help to dismantle the portal rather than just hide the journals to preserve his “life’s work.” (I still think Ford wouldn’t tell Stan about Bill in shame, though… this will be important later on.) They’re a good long ways into dismantling it when one day Ford goes missing… and when Stan finally ends up finding him hours and hours later his brother is lying prone under a fresh layer of snow, frozen to death or something. (That’s the fate witete came up with! Thanks for the really heckin’ unnerving imagery, duuude…)

In reality, Bill ended up possessing Ford when he got a little too tired, and basically threatened to kill him (with one of the few things he still had at his disposal that Ford couldn’t get rid of- nature.) if he didn’t stop dismantling the portal. Gave him an ultimatum. Bill’s mistake, however, was wrongly assuming that Ford was selfish enough to put his own self-preservation above the safety of the entire dimension. He doesn’t quite realize how damn stubborn Ford is. 

Stubborn enough to die just to spite him. To cut him off from his one physical point of contact with this world, and this dimension itself.

So Ford dies. And Stan mourns. Stan still doesn’t understand how this happened. It’s been labeled by everyone else as suicide, but it just doesn’t make sense. Ford might have been a bit off his rocker, but he didn’t seem like he’d do… that.

Somehow Bill ends up contacting Stan within dreams, and spins some great elaborate lie (I’ll be honest I’m still not sure what said lie would have to entail to convince Stan) about how what happened to Ford was a tragic accident and that he can help him create some device that would be able to pull Ford’s “spirit” back into this world and allow it to manifest physically. (A.K.A take a mindscape dwelling creature and allow it to take physical form in the real world, which is exactly what Bill needs- but of course he doesn’t tell Stan that.) The little shit’s just trying to manipulate his way into this dimension again, as per heckin’ usual. Sighhh.

If Stan does smell a con, he doesn’t bring it up with Bill or deny the agreement. At this point, he’s utterly desperate to get Ford back, whatever it takes- which will eventually be his downfall. He’ll juggle the consequences when he gets to them, but damnit he’s gotta rescue Ford.

So he begins constructing Bill’s machine from the gutted parts of the portal. And much like in canon, it takes the good part of thirty years to get it near completion.

Meanwhile in the mindscape, Ford’s discovered that in his present state, he’s essentially tethered to Gravity Falls. He also discovers that while he does inhabit what is seemingly the same mindscape that Bill used and occupied during their old partnership, Bill is nowhere to be found. Is it possible that he’s somehow slipped into a pocket dimension due to his soul being permanently shucked here? 

But Ford begins to observe what’s going on in the world around him. And when he notices Stan beginning to build something from the old guts of the portal he freaks out because he just KNOWS that Bill is behind this, that he’s still trying to push into their dimension, that he’s manipulating Stan, he’s gonna hurt him he’s gonna betray him and oh god what if he kills him like he killed me?? Ford knows he has to stop this however he can, but there’s a big problem:

Unlike Dipper in Sock Opera, Ford’s connection to the real world at this point is so weak, diluted, and untested that he can barely influence or affect anything whatsoever. He’s stuck. He can’t communicate.

Over the span of multiple years, Ford very slowly begins to build up this connection. He starts trying to attract Stan’s attention in small ways… a stray gust of wind here, a slammed door there. This actually helps out Stan’s Mystery Shack a lot- because then he can claim it’s haunted. By the time Dipper and Mabel come along and Dipper finds the journal, he’s starting to learn how to affect the world in more complex ways. He grows particularly attached to Dipper, and helps him in his adventures by flipping the pages of the journal open to the exact bit he needed at any moment. There’s also been times where Dipper found himself in a pinch without his journal, and then turned around and saw it right there on the ground in front of him, brought to him by Ford via mindscape. 

Ford tries communicating with Dipper by spelling out words with things, but much like the “bewarb” thing from the first episode the messages are almost always muddled because he can’t quite get a grip with his mindscape abilities yet.

Summer moves on… Stan’s machine is almost finished… Dipper begins to suspect something is fishy with this magical journal of his, and his ultimate summer mystery is to crack the mystery behind it.

Then, there comes a point where Ford suddenly realizes that he possesses the ability to enter and influence dreams, much like Bill. He takes the first opportunity he can to enter Stan’s dream to try and warn him of what Bill is truly planing. Things do not go well, ofc. Come on, these are the Pines brothers we’re talking about. XD 

I’m gonna directly quote @witete here, because you put this perfectly:

So maybe Stan’s dreaming at one point and he just thinks it’s a regular dream of Ford (he’s had many of those before) but this one’s different- more… tangible in a sense. Ford seems more real. Dare he say alive (god that hurts Stan to say).

Stan quickly comes to realize that this Ford somehow MUST be real, because this Ford is pushing too many of his buttons all at once to just be a dream, idealized version of him. Ford demands that he stop construction on this machine, and warns him that Bill seeks to use it to enter the dimension and cause untold suffering to its entire population. Stan outright refuses, and basically says that he’s more than willing to bet the universe if he could have a chance at saving the life of his twin brother.

Desperate, Ford ends up going to Dipper in his dream next… hoping that he might be able to understand, since he already suspected the journal to be magic in some way. That he might be able to help him. Dipper’s pretty surprised at the whole situation of Ford manipulating the journal from a sort of pocket dimension- but accepts it pretty readily. However, just when Ford’s about to warn Dipper about the machine, Mabel wakes him up and the connection is lost. By this point, Ford’s so exhausted by TWO dream entries in one night that his energy is spent for a few days. He can’t do anything.

Dipper agonizes over what the important message could have been for the next few days, staring at the journal as if it could suddenly form words at any moment and tell him.

Even when Ford regains enough energy to try again, Stan still outright refuses to give up saving him. And even though he finally is able to fill in Dipper on what’s going on and instruct him on how to shut the machine down, it seems they’re gonna be unable to do anything in time… 

And while Ford doesn’t actually understand how he did it, in blind desperation he somehow ends up rushing towards Stanley within the mindscape, hoping to do anything to stop this, ANYTHING… and ends up accidentally shucking Stan out of his body and into the mindscape. He manages to shut the machine down. But it dawns on him afterwards that he has NO idea how to reverse it and push himself back into the mindscape where he belongs.

Even worse, he realizes that he’s essentially just cursed Stan to the same existence he suffered in loneliness through for thirty long years. He possessed his own brother, stole his body, without his consent. In this way, he’s just like Bill- and that sickens him. Furthermore, it took him years to figure out how to manipulate his surroundings, but Stan doesn’t have that experience. They HAVE to find a way to communicate with each other, but how??

And y-yeah that’s all I have for now. I have no idea how this ends or how things are solved right now, although Ford is definitely still dead physically however this plays out whoOPS.

To finish, please take this lighter, ridiculous idea witete proposed from just after Ford accidentally possessing Stan:

So I imagine that the kids never really notice the difference at first so after all the shit has gone down Ford just fucking starts… yelling at the air because he knows that Stan’s there. He’s saying shit like “just fucking… I don’t know… slam me into the dirt like those men from WWE!” The kids are so scared and confused. (Idk the idea of just Ford yelling desperately into the air at presumably nothing just makes me laugh)

What a beautiful image to end on XD

[divorcedfiddleford]

bad stupid concept below the break that i spent an hour on so i dont wanna delete it but i doubt i’ll do anything with it because its bad and stupid

a fuckin..... au where ford died and his spirit is tied to journal 3 and when dipper finds him he helps the kids through the book tom riddle diary style except not evil

stan almost believes he’s dead for good except in journal 1 he talks about ghosts and stuff so he learns everything he can about ghosts and resurrection and shit in the hopes that one day he might be able to bring his brother back but its kind of a distant hope and he mainly focuses on running his haunted house attraction

ford bonds with the kids really early on and he doesnt even know that theyre his relatives at first because he cant fuckin see because hes a book. but like he does stuff like comfort dipper after dvm and support mabel in irrational treasure and whenever the kids ask him questions he answers them and he’s always like “but i must insist that you only approach this with the utmost caution and respo-” and then they’re like “THANKS MR AUTHOR” and slam the cover

maybe ford doesnt remember anything?? maybe its like one of those ghost situations where over time he cant remember who he was but remembers stuff that he wrote on his pages so when they ask him who he was he’s like “uhhh call me ford” and when they mention the wackadoodle gobblewonker inventor he’s like “well i used to have a friend who made crazy robots like that but he’s probably dead or something. idk what year is it”

idk i have a lot of ideas like maybe bill wasnt a demon maybe he was a warlock who cursed ford or something and maybe stan discovers resurrection is possible in scaryoke and starts focusing on bringing ford back to life maybe ford can see and the monocle is like his eyeball maybe fiddleford falls in love with a book i dont know how he wouldnt figure out about stan early on maybe he does idfk my head is a mess