#man i just want stan and ford to have a silly cool grauntie

[villainartist]

character sheets i made for my relativity falls fic! im a grauntie may warrior, id die for that whimsical old lady

[a-mad-scientist-approaches]

Multiverse is a Curse Word (6)

Okay, hiatus time after this one, but I’ll try to get the next one out as soon as I can. Everyone who has been keeping track of this crazy thing so far, it has meant so much to me. Thank you!!

As always, Adeline Marks is @hntrgurl13‘s awesome OC, and the Dimension Jumper and Drifting Dimensions AUs are her creations also.

@the-subpar-ghost made the Adrift AU, a goldmine of feels, angst, and Ford-Mabel bonding.

The Addiford ship is from the mind of @scipunk63. I think you’ll like this chapter.

@deadpool-demon-diva and @thejesterlyfictionista. Here’s a new one, enjoy.

Minor spoiler: There’s flashbacks to alternate lives, and in one of these Stan is mentioned to have read Tolkien. This is from @amolecularmachine‘s brilliant fic By the Skin of Your Teeth. Go read it.

AO3  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10  11

Chapter 6: Naturally-Occurring Nerdy Stuff

Addi felt guilt begin to crush her as soon as she heard Mabel whimper in her sleep. She had given Stanford the sword; she hadn’t tried hard enough to convince Wesley she could handle the job; she had encouraged her two companions to stay with the resistance even though she knew Wesley might try to get them involved; she had become entangled in the resistance herself. Addi sighed. The mistakes just kept piling up.

At another whine from Mabel she abandoned her position on watch and padded through the silk-soft green grass to where the girl was sleeping. The beauty of this planet’s forests would be a sight to behold in the morning.

“Hey, sweetie,” she said gently, running a hand through Mabel’s short brown curls, “hey, it’s okay, you’re safe, you’re safe …”

Mabel opened her eyes and looked around, reorienting herself. Addi continued to stroke her hair until her breathing evened out. The sound of wind rustling through delicate leaves soothed them both.

Eventually Mabel sat up and rested her chin on her knees, shifting her blanket so that it wrapped completely around her. Stanford hadn’t been eager to retrieve their supplies from the shuttle (delaying their departure through a portal), but Addi was now glad she had insisted. Having a halfway decent campsite encouraged a feeling of safety and homeliness, something they all needed.

“Not sleeping tonight?” she asked. Mabel shook her head silently and leaned against Addi, who enveloped her in a hug.

“You know it wasn’t your fault, right?”

Mabel remained quiet for a few seconds, then replied, “I keep going over and over it in my head, but I can’t see it happening any differently. I mean, when I swung the sword I didn’t know she was there, and I needed to shut the security doors.” She turned to Addi with anguish in her eyes. “Am I missing something? Was there anything I could have done to make it go right?”

Truth be told, Addi had no idea. Thirty years of travelling through the multiverse had pretty effectively demolished all her certainty and guarded scepticism. There was undoubtedly a universe where everything had gone right for Mabel, where no one had died or come near to death. There was also a universe where nothing had gone right. The chaos that perpetually engulfed the multiverse meant that Addi had rarely been able to do more than hope like hell she was not part of the latter, and wish that she occasionally caught a glimpse of the former.

“No. I think that was entirely out of your control.” Addi answered. “Everything has to happen somewhere, and that was what happened to you … but let’s play out a hypothetical situation: if you had missed that guard, and hit the control panel, what do you think would have happened afterwards?”

The teary girl thought. “She still had her gun … and she was definitely not afraid to use it,”

“Right. So regardless of whether she was simply trying to do her job, or protect her friends, or was hyped up on adrenaline, anger, or fear, she was also trying to hurt you and your great uncle. You were trying to keep yourself and your family safe.” She let that soak in for a moment before continuing. “Mabel, it is wonderful when you can find a win-win scenario, but they are not guaranteed all the time.”

The girl sighed as though some of the weight had been lifted from her. There was still a long way to go, but it was a start.

“It’s not your fault either, Addi.” She said unexpectedly. “Blaming yourself for being betrayed is something overly-dramatic TV action heroes do to gain tragic sympathy from viewers. It’s compelling, but silly. And you’re not silly, Grauntie Addi.” She finished sternly. Then she nestled into the speechless woman’s lap matter-of-factly.

⃝

Ford was awoken by daylight streaming through a parting in the trees to hit him precisely in the eyes. Rolling over to avoid it, he found he was the last to wake. Adeline and Mabel were both enclosed in a blanket, softly playing a hand game.

“Morning sunshine,” Adeline said when she saw him.

“I’m awake enough to recognise sarcasm,” Ford warned, sitting up.

“Sarcastic? I? Your paranoia is getting the better of you again, Stanford,”

“Here you go, Grunkle Ford.” Mabel deposited a fruit in his lap and crouched next to him. “It’s not poisonous, I ate one before you woke up.”

“You what?”

“She’s just messing with you,” Adeline said, shaking her head.

“Oh, so you have learnt some caution,” Ford said, relieved.

Mabel laughed. “Oh no, I totally ate, like, three. But Addi knew it was okay,”

Still mildly concerned, Ford finished the sweet tasting food.

“Are you okay, though?” he asked tentatively after swallowing. He could tell by the shadow which temporarily dampened her light mood that she knew he was not talking about the fruit.

Mabel shrugged slightly, avoiding his eyes. “I could do with a couple million stuffed animals and a huge family hug pile,” she said, her voice catching because they all knew that neither were possible.

Regardless, he would do his best. He put as much love into the following embrace as he could muster, and the surprised giggle Mabel made when Addi joined in allowed him to believe that they were equivalent to at least a hundred fluffy toys.

⃝

“I wish we could stay here,” Mabel said wistfully as they packed up.

“As do I, however I think it would be safer if we continued to move on. That threat Wesley gave you was decidedly ominous,” Ford directed at Adeline.

“I don’t think he’d come after us.” She frowned. “Then again, I didn’t think he was a flipping insane-” she paused.

“Butthead!” Mabel supplied.

Ford nodded his agreement and checked the readings on his analyser before altering his calculations.

“Another portal should be opening up around here-”

“There!” Mabel shouted. “Bye forest!”

They stepped through the bright blue circle.

Ford had never gotten used to crossing dimensions, and he doubted he ever would. The experience was the same for everyone. They caught flashes of events from their alternate selves’ lives.

… he was in a darkened room and a terrified boy who could only be Mabel’s brother was pointing a memory gun at him …

… he was in a hospital bed and feeling worse than ever in his life, but Stan was making him grin like an idiot by admitting he had read Tolkien …

… he was staring down in shock at the lifeless form of his niece, who had just managed to plunge Adeline’s sword into the control panel before being shot down …

⃝

Addi shivered and took a deep breath, throwing off the lingering feeling that she was falling off a cliff towards the Gravity Falls river. Stanford was looking pretty shaken up too.

“Hello forest!” Mabel said cheerfully. Their new location was rather less pleasant, but it did seem to be another forest. It had dry, browny-green, tough-looking trees rather than the earlier lush, deep green ones, and raw, baking heat emanated from every available surface, reflecting the sun’s glare. The pale pink sky was stubbornly clear of cloud cover.

“We’re going to need water,” Addi stated.

It was almost three hours before they found any. By then, all of them were exhausted and soaked with sweat. They were also extremely tired of the rocky, uneven terrain.

Mabel let out a groan of relief upon seeing the river. Without saying another word she threw off her boots, her black coat, and her sweater, and flopped into the coolness, remembering to keep it away from her face until they knew it was a fresh water current. Addi, too, immediately stripped off her outer layers and sat beneath a tree on the river’s edge, allowing the cool liquid to soothe her burning feet.

Stanford held off his moment of peace, of course. She expected nothing less from the man who would work himself to exhaustion on the portal before he slept. He took out a capsule-like device and trickled some water into it. It beeped and flashed green.

“Okay, it’s fresh,”

Mabel instantly dunked her head into the water and lay face-down. Stanford added his own contributions to the pile of clothes, including a starry, dark blue sweater that Mabel had obviously made. This revealed something that made Addi snort.

“Nice tat,” she laughed. Ford flushed slightly and instinctively clapped a hand over the cheerful little star inked onto his neck. Its yellow colour exactly matched Mabel’s shirt.

“Shut up,” he said irritably, and waded into the river.

“I want one just like it,” Mabel enthused, coming up for air to hear the exchange.

“No. Never,”

“Aw, you’re no fun,”

Stanford narrowed his eyes. “What is this? My niece has suddenly become deluded and irrational! She must have been bitten by the deadly Lunacy Beetle of Madron, whose poison can only be flushed out by,” he surged over to Mabel, “extensive water exposure!”

Mabel shrieked and caught him in the face with a blast of water. This did little to deter him, and Mabel was plucked out of the river and mercilessly dunked back under over and over. Droplets trailed sparkles through the air. The girl’s war cries and vows of vengeance were interspersed with splutters, rendering her as threatening as a kitten. On Dunk Number Five however, she managed to grab onto Ford’s shirt effectively enough to pull him under with her, and when they emerged again they were both coughing up water.

“So is the madness all out of your system? Do you consider me sufficiently ‘fun’ again?” Ford asked once his lungs were clear.

“Yeah, yeah, you’ve made your point.” Conceded Mabel. “BUT, that water fight wasn’t fair. You are way out of your league, old man.”

“Oh, well in that case, maybe I need to enlist Addi’s help. Together we should surely be a match for you.” He turned to look at Adeline, but she was already crashing towards them. Ford’s confident expression was wiped away however when Addi dived at him rather than his niece. Mabel cheered as they went under.

Below the surface it was difficult to discern much of anything, the silt being so recently stirred up, but Addi did see a glint as Ford’s glasses came off. She caught them in one hand and grinned mischievously down at him, close enough to see his matching expression. She was very conscious of how he had not removed his arm from around her waist since they had fallen. Also, she needed air.

“Is that a jet ski?” asked Mabel when they resurfaced. They looked, Addi returning Ford’s glasses.

The river was very broad, so much so that the opposite bank was a blur. However, there was what looked like a small vehicle heading in their general direction.

“I don’t think they’ve seen us. It’s most likely a patrol of some kind. Nevertheless, we don’t want to be noticed,” Stanford said warily.

On the bank they shoved their feet into their boots and Addi hid their dry clothes and bags in a bush. A layer of leaves combined with rock-hard dirt eliminated the need to cover their tracks, so they retreated straight into the refuge provided by the forest, and waited. It was only then Addi realised she had forgotten to grab their weapons in her haste.

She expected the vehicle to pass by on a quick sweep, then continue down the river. Instead, it came to a stop not far from their supplies and the rider dismounted. The amphibian-like person walked unassumingly forward, bulbous eyes fixed on a monitor in their hands.

Seriously? Our luck cannot be this bad, Addi thought disbelievingly as they were forced to back away indefinitely as the stranger moved innocently towards them.

After a ridiculous sixty feet of this, the alien even following their evasive and curved paths, there were more footsteps off to their side. Another person with a monitor was heading their way. Addi stopped breathing as herself and her friends crouched in the middle of some large bushes and waited for the beings to pass them by. Through the leaves, she saw them gesture to a sick-looking tree and compare monitors. Mabel released a breath and Stanford relaxed.

Environmentalists. No threat. Unless you hurt their trees.

She jerked her head towards an outcrop of boulders a reasonable distance from where the scientists were working. Quickly and quietly, the three of them left the site of interest.

“That never happens to us!” Mabel said happily to Ford. “It always turns out to be bounty hunters, or space police, or some other person you’ve upset.”

“I’ve upset? Allow me to remind you of a certain gambler who destroyed half a market square not a week ago,” Ford responded in mock offence.

“Ooh, shiny.” Mabel noticed, deftly changing the subject to look under the gap between a boulder and the ground. “I think I can – ACK!” She suddenly disappeared from view.

“MABEL!” Both adults yelled. Stanford leaped to where she had been sliding into the gap, and he too disappeared.

Knowing it probably was not a good idea, but going ahead with it anyway, Addi grabbed a sharp rock and followed. There was a near invisible hole under the boulder with a small, glittering white crystal on its other side. Bracing herself, she dropped into the darkness.

It was like a slide. A really rough, nearly vertical slide. Amid the tumbling of rocks, she heard shouting coming from below her and prayed the others were okay. She hit the floor of a cavern with a jolt, but managed to stay on her feet, and spun around with the rock raised, searching for some sort of cave-dwelling monstrosity. Instead, she saw Stanford and Mabel both gazing around in ecstasy, spouting off half to each other and half to themselves about the wonders surrounding them.

The wonders in question were many, many, larger versions of the crystal marking the entrance to the hole. The entire place was filled with stars. Addi dropped the rock.

“Addi, Addi look! It’s so pretty, it’s like magic! Is it magic? It could be magic! What if there’s fairies down here? -”

“Adeline, the luminous properties of these crystals is amazing! It appears they can absorb and store energy almost perfectly, and only release a small amount as light, creating this wonderful glimmer!-”

“-fairies use them for building houses! Or maybe there’s an underground society of dwarfs that come and mine this place! Or even-”

“-significant usefulness as batteries or even devices of their own! Do you think we could fashion some sort of communicator out of them? Maybe-”

“-dragon treasure! I could probably make a bracelet out of these-”

“”-look, even as we’re speaking they’re growing brighter from the kinetic energy produced by sound vibrations!”

“I need some!”

“I must take a sample!”

“So, I guess you two haven’t encountered endo-ergon quartz before?” queried Addi, amused at their excitement.

“You have?” replied Ford, carefully unearthing some and placing them in a pocket.

“A few times. I’ve never seen a deposit of this size before. You are right, they make good batteries. I use them when I can to power things like Big Bertha, my transmitter, my portal beacon …”

Which reminds me, I should set that up, Addi remembered. She grabbed a couple of crystals for herself.

“Wow, they’re pretty handy.” Called Mabel, collecting some of the smaller ones. “This cave is full of naturally-occurring nerdy things! Except these rocks are actually beautiful and useful, which is completely different to Dipper’s collection at home. I think he has some gravel in there.” She mused.

There was an exit at the back of the cavern which returned them to the forest. Once they were in the open Mabel turned to Addi.

“Grauntie Addi, I’m going to make you a friendship bracelet. And you Grunkle Ford. And one for me too,” With that decision, she began to run back up the incline to where the rock pile was situated.

“Grauntie?” Ford said in surprise.

“Yes. I’m very proud,”

“I guess that decides it,” said Ford absentmindedly.

“Decides what?”

“Oh, er, I was going to ask whether you wanted to stay with us.” He said, a bit awkwardly. “I mean, you’ve saved our lives so many times already, and you are extremely capable, and amazing at, well, everything. I honestly cannot thank you enough.” He drew in a breath. “I know that I’m asking a lot, for you to keep helping us, so hopefully we’ll be able to return the favour at some point.”

Addi opened her mouth to deny the notion that she expected anything in return, to say that it had been her privilege to meet them, and get to know them, and spend time with them. However, Ford didn’t seem to be done.

“Mabel clearly loves you and wants you to come with us. I have to say, it would be greatly beneficial for her to have someone other than myself to care for her, especially someone who actually seems to know what they’re doing with kids.” He gave a quick, but nervous, grin at that. “I, myself, value your company exceedingly, and I would … greatly appreciate it if you decide to remain.”

Are you kidding? She wanted to scream. Of course! She figured that would be fairly alarming however. A shout of joy was all she wanted to do, though, because she could feel a swell of emotions about to explode from her like a volcano of happiness. He couldn’t know how much what he had said meant to her. He hadn’t even known her in his dimension! At home she had always thought of herself as good, but nowhere near as brilliant as her two friends. Yet here she was, and Stanford was telling her that she was the capable one, was nervously asking her to stay with him as though there was any other option she had considered, and above all was completely trusting her with the life of the wonderful child he had in his care when only a week ago he had seen her as his enemy.

“So … will you stay?”

The volcano erupted.

Completely impulsively, but without any regrets, she stepped forward and kissed him, entwining their fingers as she did. After a moment of uncertainty, she was relieved to find him kissing her back.

⃝

Whatever Mabel had expected was the reason Addi and Ford were taking so long, seeing them making out in a clearing full of light was not it. The first thing she did was react appropriately.

“MATCH MADE!” she screamed.