#well..... idk he sees Fidds and hears that he knows Ford and he sees him as Ford's friend and he thinks oh man he deserves to know

[what-am-i-doing-in-this-fandom]

Yeah, I don't know about you, Fidds, but I'd fold at this 🙏

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[pinespinespinespinespines]

UM what if... Fidds met Stan during the college years when he comes to apologize to Ford. Like-

Like hear me out-

At some point while Ford is at Backupsmore and Stan had been running around the country for a couple years, (lets say 4ish yrs after Stan is kicked out?) Stan attempts to apologize to him by visiting his dorms. Ford ignores him/ calls security on him until Stan is just loitering out by the entrance with his car.

Seeing all this, Ford's kindhearted roommate Fiddleford tries to coax his friend into giving his brother a chance, to which Ford stubbornly refuses. Exasperated and pitying Stan, after a few days of this, Fiddleford approaches his roommate's twin himself.

Stan is of course not a pretty picture since he's been living out of his car, and when he sees Fiddleford he assumes it's to shoo him away. When Fiddleford instead introduces himself and apologizes for Ford, a confused Stan begins to ask questions that he would be asking his brother: how he's been, what he's studying, is he any better with girls?

After a while of this, Fiddleford begins to feel guilty about having a conversation that really should be with Ford himself, not him. He tells Stan this, and promises to find a way to convince Ford to speak to him again at least once. Stan agrees to stay in town until that happens.

Ford isnt happy when Fiddle tells him he talked to Stan. Hes a petty sore loser so hes still adamant about not seeing his brother, and grows more upset as Fiddleford sees Stan every couple days to chat/update. Without cellphones, Stan just comes by whenever and hangs out until Fiddle spots him.

Fiddleford thinks Stanley wanting to reunite with Ford endearing. He also finds Stan's, let's be honest, meat-headed suave, to be a refreshing change of pace from his roommate's constant obsession over formulas and theories.

Besides having a friend of Ford's on his side, Stan is just thrilled to have someone who listens to him and doesn't mind his company. Fiddleford even trims Stan's hair for him one time, and other little things that he sees as simple decent favors for a nice guy down on his luck, but Stan sees as the most generous things a guy's ever done for him. He's starting to feel indebted to Fiddleford, and he's not sure what to do about it other than give up on Ford and drive off so that he isn't bothering them anymore.

When Fiddleford buys some extra groceries a few days later and gives them to Stan, the poor guy has a near-panic about being a burden later that night. On a whim, because he's freaking out and that's how Stan operates, he flees the town.

A month passes before Stan feels stupid and returns to the college. He still wants to see Ford- he'll just turn down all of Fidd's kind gestures this time. Stan pulls up outside the dorms and parks, falling asleep in the driver's seat until a banging at his window startles him awake.

Fiddleford, pounding on his car window, looking mad. Uh oh. Stanley gets out of the car, expecting a well-deserved punch to the face for accepting those groceries and bailing without warning. Instead, Fidds shakes his shoulders while rambling with exasperation.

"I was THIS close to gettin' him to talk to ya, ya know that? What were you thinkin', runnin' off without a daggum word to me, makin' me think somethin' bad happ'nd- what was I s'posta tell yer brother, huh?" Etc etc while Stanley just stares blankly and let's himself get shaken for 3 minutes straight while Fiddle scolds him.

The whole time, Stan is wondering why the hell this guy is worrying over him. He's distracted when fidds tells him that Ford too was worried. Is this progress with his twin? Or did he ruin it all with his fleeing stunt?

-

UHHH God I typed so much. Much more than i thought. Idk maybe I'll have more brainrot to continue this later??

[abyssalzones]

I would love to hear more abt your college pre-egg-breaking fiddauthor thoughts if you'd be open to it

oh BOY would I

so when I think about college fiddauthor nowadays I mainly think about both my own experiences with ~navigating identity~ and how I would approach a gay FTM relationship from a semi-realistic 1970's angle, where you start to see a lot of what you'd call "milestones" I guess in LGBT history and public awareness. wait okay here's something I said to mer that can set a precedent for what I'm talking about

when it comes to me and my own journey of self discovery irt sexuality and transness, I feel like those two things are very intertwined, because the concept of identity in my eyes is very socially motivated. I've previously identified as a nonbinary lesbian and a transgender gay man respectively before getting to the point I'm at now, and don't feel like either of those things were incorrect necessarily, just how I felt at the time (and what I wanted out of a relationship, really). I think I literally got an ask ages ago questioning how I went from one to the other but Idk I don't think the gender journey is as simple or "logical" as people coming from a hetero-patriarchal perspective (that's a mouthful) seem to think.

and, And, from a Historical perspective, FTM experiences and butch lesbian experiences have Always been very intertwined, especially back in the early 70's when more people were starting to have some awareness (even in LGBT spaces) of this thing known as the Transgender Lifestyle. I'm flattening things quite a bit here and I know for a fact there's a lot of variation between experiences, especially depending on your social circles, but from what I can glean a lot of the time transgender men weren't very well known and so a lot of the time you would just ID as a butch lesbian and/or present as a man socially, sometimes for safety reasons. and there's a lot of overlap there too that continues into contemporary transmasc spaces today :]

historical justification aside I basically think college would be a major turning point for self-discovery in both of their lives, but more-so for fiddleford than ford? I've always assumed based on everything we've seen that fidds was basically the only friend ford had in college, which definitely would have influenced him in important ways, but other than that I think he invested most of his time in studying and developments in gender were an afterthought. ford's FTM identity starts from a place of "failing to be a woman" and then develops with his pride in being a huge weirdo. in my mind that can only really happen once he's in gravity falls and has basically sacrificed his connections with other people/the world to live as his truest self, whether that's researching anomalies or living as a man.

fiddleford, however, I always think of from the perspective of someone bucking to societal expectations for safety reasons. this is because of a lot of things: ford's possible feelings of abandonment in favor of Normalcy (who can forget "Go back to your doting family and a life of fear and compromise!"), his jumping into a nuclear family immediately out of college, But also packing up and driving to oregon in a matter of days after ford asks for his help... when he has a kid who could be no older than 5 or 6 at home...? I sort of see his presentation as a foil to ford's, trying to mimic cishetero ("hetero") normalcy vs. being the Lone Transsexual Freak. I've gotten horribly off topic from the college thing hang on

basically I imagine them in their uni days like two weird butch gay women that are just, totally socially unapproachable. fiddleford is the more outgoing of the two as he's been voted "most likely to actually have other friends" in my mind, so if anyone was going to gay & lesbian student association meetings it would've been him, but otherwise ford is too busy ignoring his feelings. "I don't care if I'm a man or a woman I'm too busy studying. go away." but of course they find enough solace in eachother's company and their different-but-distinctly-similar weirdness that it forms an unbreakable transgender bond. freak4freak if you will. fidds settles on a bisexual identity without thinking about it too hard because honestly the conclusion here is that it doesn't matter if his roommate is a woman or a man he just knows he needs to do terrible things to him over d&d&md (sorry) (not really that sorry though.)

it's actually funny you bring this up because I'd been workshopping a short comic set in their college era that touches on this stuff a lot. not sure when that will ever get done but I can tell you it's. uhm

yeah they're kind of weird.

[eeveelotions]

alrighty, time for me to ramble about the MYSTERY CAFE AU, the au where Stan inherits(ish) a cafe in gravity falls

Stan gets to gravity falls probably a few years after he's been kicked out- I'd say when he's 20 or so

I am taking a page from Taz amnesty and having him break into an abandoned looking storefront for shelter, only to be greeted with an elderly person who takes pity on him and gives him a job

the cafe, quite frankly, sucks. only the locals know about it, there's barely enough money to pay the bills, and Stan feels guilty bc now the owner is paying for him to eat and live there too

so, what does Stan do? I think y'all know the answer

behold, the MYSTERY CAFE! decorated with all sorts of wonders and mysteries- the rock that looks like a face rock is a huge selling point

drinks themed (ie named after) around cryptids or myths!

business starts booming-

I should figure out who the old person who takes Stan in is, huh? since I'm gonna hurt y'all's feelings and they're gonna die from, guess what? (you might know if you read my post last night)

HANAHAKI DISEASE, DUH DUH DUH

hanahaki disease is a thing in this world, usually known for romantic feelings, right?

well, inspired by the fic Chrisanthemums by the lovely @detectivejigsawpines , gravity falls has a unique strain due to it weirdness, where it can be platonic for loved ones as well

Stan is shocked to find out this person was also kicked out at a young age, and never reconnected with their family.

so, not long after this person passes, does Stan start hacking up flowers.

a few years pass. (should I link this to my letters au? where Stan sends Ford letters? idk homies, more to come)

Stan starts hearing about a reclusive scientist that moves into the edge of town. boyish Dan, a regular who loves the Manly Mocha (made solely for Dan to purchase), informs Stan that the man could be his twin

Stan promptly throws up, because he knows exactly who it is, and Dan finds out he has hanahaki disease

and guess what? he doesn't do a damn thing about it

ooo, except maybe now he writes letters? pretending he DOESNT live in the same town as his brother (it's my au I do what I want)

regardless, the next two years drag. The disease has gotten worse, now that Stan knows his brother lives not even twenty minutes away, but likely doesn't care for him (gasp he does write the letters but never gets a response and that ALSO makes it worse)

so, two years pass, right? two long, painful years, where Stan thinks about going to see his brother but opts to just write letters like, hey I'm sorry for the project, hope you're okay, I'm alive, I run a cafe now, but doesn't give a return address because he doesn't want Ford knowing where he lives and thinks Ford is still pissed at him

enter: fiddleford mcgucket

fiddleford shows up to gravity falls a bit early in my au. bc I like nice, normal angst, and I'm scared to try and write whatever the hell bill causes (this is debatable, I thought about an almost portal scene where Stan throws up petals and that stops, but idk homies)

anyway, fidds shows up because he's going through a divorce, it's somewhat mutual because him and Emma may realized they liked not the opposite sex, but he still loves her and wants the best, and of course there's Tate, and he misses his son, but he had to get away because feelings are complicated and Stanford had invited him

quell surprise when he visits the local cafe before heading to see Stanford and, lo and behold, stANFORD??

jk it's stanley

fiddleford puts two and two together pretty quick, and Stan admits, yeah, that's my brother, he doesn't know I'm here, he doesn't want to see me, yadda yadda

fiddleford promises not to say anything, because like a good southern boy, it's not his business

but, like a typical southerner, he can't leave well enough alone when he can do something about it, so he DOES convince Stanford to come into town to the cafe

Stan and Ford make eye contact, Stan books it out the back door, and Ford pursues him, followed by fiddleford

"I've been worried SICK about you, you IDIOT, WHY WOULD YOU SEND ME LETTERS WITH NO RETURN ADDRESS"

"don't worry about it"

anyway, Ford is still mad, or upset maybe? but there's the in person discussion about the science fair, and they begin rebuilding their relationship, and everyone is happy

right?

WRONG BECAUSE IM CRUEL

(this is actually the happy ending for people who don't ship fiddstan bc after this it's fiddstan central babes)

a year or so later, Stan confesses to ford (Ford found out about his hanahaki disease, which soon almost completely disappeared due to them reconnecting their relationship) that the petals are back, but they're a different color this time

Ford starts drilling him, fascinated but also concerned. could it be for ma? pa? shermie?

but then he starts probing into stans dating life, and Stan shrugs, bc it's gravity falls, there's nobody worth dating and boyish Dan isn't his type

except, fiddleford

Stan starts talking about fidds, how the two are good friends, hang out, Stan talks about looking forward to seeing him, etc etc

"Stanley, you're in love with fiddleford"

"WHAT" spittake

and then i go from there :)

if you made it this far, thanks? I want to write this and I probably will but I've got like. two but technically three if you count the pokemon one aus and together against the world is my main one but I love cafe aus so

anyway bye 👋👋👋

[thatabitcryptic]

Ok ok ok guys hear me out..

So Fiddleford is kinda a goofball right? He builds death robots, he played the banjo so much that Ford put a rule in place so he wouldn’t play it after 8pm, there is this lovely post about the Hawaiian shirt in the shack and finally Fidds named his kid TATER Amqlmiakxziwklj (there is probably more as well haha)

But then he’s well put together and a gentleman before he goes insane. He knows how to rein it in.

So what if we added another goofball to the mix back in the 80s?? One so adorable he can’t help but mess around with her?? All I’m saying is..

TIMESTUCK AU WITH MABEL BEING SENT BACK TO THE 80S WITH FIDDS AND FORD!!!

Pros:

Fidds and Mabel being silly and Ford being tired

Fidds teaching Mabel how to play the banjo - either because she asked or because Ford can’t say no to Mabel and Fidds takes advantage of it so there can always be banjo playing

Mabel is a match maker so...... fiddauthor

Mabel decorating little robots he has made with glitter and stickers :D

Sweaters!!

Ford is completely confused as to why Fiddleford is so much more spunky all of a sudden until he sees them having fun :))

They would cook!! Maybe Fidds has a family recipe or something that they make!

Bonding over pigs (in journal 3 Ford jokingly says he would send Fidds back south if there was a pig in the house - boy oh boy does Mabel have news for him)

Mabel and baby Tate!!!

Angst about what happens to Fidds in the future :( sad lonely dump man

These guys would definitely use their combined skills to make sure Ford eats and sleeps

Cons:

We could die from over exposure to cuteness but idk man it might be worth it

And these are just ideas for Fiddleford and Mabel interacting!! Imagine...