#timewish au

[desthen]

“I can fix the biggest mistake of my life”

“I can have what I’ve always wanted”

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A cover for a story I’ll probably never write. Based on the Timewish Au from the gravity falls fandom. But! with a time loop. Summary and excerpt under the cut

Stan wishes he was never born/died as a baby, and the twist is that Ford grows up alone, and when he gets a Timewish, wishes he’d had a twin brother/his brother had lived. And of course because I love alternate universe crossovers, the conflicting wishes have to be resolved. So the wishee from each timeline has to confront the other and decide on a new wish. I’ve been placing them in a time bubble, which First timeline Ford eventually breaks in to. I’ve got a lot of ideas for it, but I’m not much of a writer, so it’ll probably never get done. But I really like how this turned out. 

Honestly though, the idea came to me because I saw the Timewish au and was thinking about new timeline Ford. And myself. My mom was a twin and growing up I was always envious of that. I thought about what if I could timewish myself a twin sister or brother. And I just, hell yes I would. Better then changing any of the mistakes I’ve made or others have in my life, If I could change something about my own life in the past, it would be to have a twin. So I figured it wouldn’t be out of the realm of possibility for Ford to feel that as well. Especially after meeting Dipper and Mabel. (and if Stan died instead of never existed. either way though, it would work). 

An excerpt from when they’re in the bubble, arguing about what new wish to make (in the option where Stan wishes he’d died as a baby):

Looking at the life he'd wished in to existence, or back as it were, made it seem like his old one should have been the preferred one. And yet... and yet, he remembers that it wasn't. He remembers an emptiness beside him he'd never been able to fill and the envy of an only child wishing his family was bigger. Wished that the life that was stolen from him with his first breath had lived beside him. He remembers and he remembers, but it does no good, because Stanley is standing right in front of him, asking to disappear again.

I also had some fun thing mixing with a Jimmy Snakes headcanon/au I saw. In that the Globnar Stan has to do to win the wish was challenged by Jimmy, who blamed him for his death and subsequent demonfied 100 year contract (which he tried to get out of via time travel, causing his time arrest).

Here’s the run down for the story:

intro - jim pov challenge - ford pov globnar - stan pov wish - ford pov alternate line - altford pov colliding wishes (transition) - altford and stan pov bubble - alternating povs ford arrives - altford pov ford tries to fight himself, then is confused, then distraught, then yells and convinces - idk pov new wish - altford new alternate line - outside pov? idk pov

I was thinking Stan tried to give the wish to Ford at first, but he declined, not wanting the responsibility. Here’s the excerpt of that (one of the tiny bits I wrote)

“Make your wish." A glowing orange orb floated between them, an hourglass shape in it's center emanating lighter than the rest. Stanley seemed to change as the light from it cast orange highlights on the surrounding area. He made a half smile at Ford from across it's surface. "Well? What's it going to be? I still think you should take it" He saw the deflection for what it was, an attempt at denial he almost didn't let work. They could talk about this later, when there wasn't a huge audience from the future watching their every move. He shifted his focus from his brother to the orb and forgot for a moment that there were people waiting as he considered the opportunity. There were an endless possibility of improvements to make to his life and the lives of his family, yet he stood with a feeling of trepidition stopping him from jumping in. He could go back and fix the turns his life had made he didn't like, force the script of to follow the path he'd wanted all along. His impact could be made good and beneficial, a long list of contributions to improve the world like he'd always wanted, but... he'd been striding towards that purpose for a long time and it had done him no good. He'd fallen for a demon's con at the first sign of success and almost ended the world with his mistakes. He could fix those with this, but why should he be given the chance to? You didn't learn from mistakes if you never made them, and he'd made a lot.  what right did he have to change time? The responsibility of everything that happened that he didn't prepare for would lay squarely on his shoulders, haunting him. What if he went back to change his mistakes and only exacerbated them or made worse ones? What if he inadvertantly caused someone he loved to die? The responsibility was overwhelming. He could overthink this to death. "I refuse to take it" He whispered as he looked back to his brother, who had a unreadable expression on his face that quickly changed to confusion. "I don't want it" The orb floated away from him. Stanley's confusion turned to anger "That makes no sense, Poindexter. Who wouldn't want a time wish? Just take it!" Stanford just crossed his arms and looked away "Nope! Won't do it! I guess you'll just have to make it for us" Stanley was flabbergasted. (lol his face right here cracks me up but I’m not sure how to write it). 

Also another bubble excerpt, but after old Ford breaks in and starts arguing:

'what if we flip the equation?' He looked tired. 'i'm not changing my wish, Stanford. ' He powered through 'what if we put you back, and take someone else out?' He sighed in resignation. 'I'm not doing it.' 'just listen to me! You want to take yourself out of the equation without considering what that means for everyone else tha-' 'You think I haven't considered everyone else?!'  the question was half shouted. stan was looking  at him with frustration. 'that's the whole point of this, Stanford. everyone is better off without me. I don't see what's so hard to understand! You're the smart one! you're supposed to be able to understand simple math!' 'that's not the point!' he'd gotten off track. stanley had always had a way of riling him up to go off topic to get his way. he took a breath to calm himself down, then asked in a quiet voice 'What if it was me?' the question caught stan off guard, not expecting his anger to fizzle out so quickly.' what?' 'what if I wished myself out of existance? what if you were born alone. and your life is just fine and everyone's lives turn out better because I'm not there. and then youre given the choice we have now, to get me back or keep me gone. Which.. which one would you pick?' 'that's not fair stanford. it's not the same' 'it very much is!'

You’ll note that Ford doesn’t have the correct number of fingers in the picture. I mean you can probably guess why based on context clues. He’s the alternate timeline Ford who grew up alone. You only ever need one friend, but he didn’t have any. and with no one to make him feel normal. So, when he was in high school, he cut off his extra finger. Or one of them .

He gets that timewish btw, the same way Soos did in the show.  Dipper and Mabel win it for him while visiting for the summer at his research facility. He grows up defined by his intelligence. He gets in to west coast tech and focuses on the most profitable career path he can think of to make his father proud of him. But that isn’t what he really wants to do. It takes him a long time to finally realize what he wants to study and go for it, creating a rift between his parents and him. Goes to gravity falls to study anomalies when he’s about 40. 

Also Bill is still DEAD okay. He doesn’t show up to mess with Ford or anyone in this timeline because Stan’s smart and he made part of his wish that that stupid triangle stays dead. 

Timeline 3 is where things get real fun. Cause the time police don’t want them coming back and doing this again. They’re banned from timewishes and Globnar and a safety is put in place (or the brothers include it in their wish to make sure they don’t make the same mistakes again). Where they remember their old lives when they go back this time, as they happen. Probably in dreams. or they just wake up and know what happened this day last time. So Ford grows up remembering a life where things were pretty similar and one where he grew up without his brother. And Stan just remembers the first. They talk about it a lot when they’re kids, which is slightly ostracizing. Ford is really protective of his brother, because he remembers what it was like without him. (oh no you found me out, all of this is really just a cover to have more protective Ford fic). When the science fair comes around, the machine still doesn’t work (because someone else messed with it this time or because of a malfunction. you decide). But they still fight about it because Ford thinks the first timeline just happened all over again. But this time they’re just used to talking about stuff okay. They’ve been doing it their whole lives. and They talk about it and calm down before Filbrick tries to kick stan out again anyway. Which Ford makes enough of a stink about that their mother steps in an no one gets kicked out. Ford winds up going to backupsmore and meeting fidds again. Stan graduates high school and gets a job in sales or something. They keep in contact, still talking about their alternate lives, although it’s more stressful for them both now. Because Stan sometimes lies and Ford can tell. Or he tells the truth and it’s not really great. and then when Ford goes to gravity falls, Stan and Fidds go too and you found me out, this is also a cover for some mystery trio fic. Eventually they catch up to the timewishes. And Ford is understandably horrified.

One last quote from I quite like:

So, maybe the world doesn't end without you in it. Maybe everyone's lives turn out just fine. But, I'd rather have you

Anyway, if you read this far, thanks! I just wanted to share my idea somewhere. Maybe someone else will write it someday. I would seriously love to read it

[thatabitcryptic]

Stan: I’d do anything to get my brother back. Mabel dipper and soos: *flashbacks to when they used their time wish to order a slice of pizza*

Ohhh yess I constantly think about this

Au where Stan gets the timewish and wishes ford back into his dimension he just stands up like “what the fuck”

Also then the rift doesn’t exist and he can focus on securing the portal like they did in the better world dimension but he needs fidds to help and we get a sad reunion

[logicalbookthief]

Actually, hate to say it but ford's life without stan seems pretty good. Sure bad childhood but successful fulfilling adult life with tons of admirers and no 30 years in a mindbreaking hellhole portal

Yeah, I’ll admit, I had similar thoughts, too, especially with Ford’s behavior and dialogue in the last episode… But then I thought about how much Stan made an impact on Ford’s world, even if only his childhood, whether he realized it or not.

I’m sure the bad childhood could be overlooked or downplayed because of his success, but deep down, he probably still views himself as a freak, as an outcast not belonging anywhere, and he’d probably be very bitter about it. He might have turned out more like Stan in that he has lower self-esteem, a sense of alienation to the rest of the world without that strong connection to at least one other person.

Maybe he hates his extra finger, his anomaly, rather than embraces it ‘cause a certain somebody wasn’t around to tell him how cool it was and forget them, Sixer, they’re just jealous and who needs 'em? You’re smarter than everyone in this town combined.

'Course, I still see your point and partially agree with it, though I think that if the Ford who grew up with Stan could witness this alternative, he might actually start to feel grateful for what he had. A man can be enormously successful and wealthy and have everything he wants, yet still be miserable because he’s missing what he needs.

[logicalbookthief]

Ohh, so how much would Timewish au Ford know about what he's missing? Would it be an ever present feeling that something's wrong? Or would it be just a vague feeling?

Well, in my take on the AU - which is probably different from how the creator, @thecrowmaiden, originally pictured it tbh - Ford would be aware of that Stan’s missing from his life, because of Time Bubble or other disbelief-suspending-plot device. Just because I think it’s even more sad that way, since it gives him a chance to see what he’s lost from not having his brother.

But alternatively, I whole-heartedly think that even if he wasn’t aware, Ford would, instinctively, feel that something was missing from his life. 

He wouldn’t yearn for it, exactly, since you can't miss what you never had - yet he would feel deprived, somehow, and it’d be the lack of knowing what this feeling meant that I think would low-key bother him most.