Sometimes I'll See A Post About Some Discourse And Just Think "who The Actual Fuck Is Getting Into Fights

Through the years ⛵️

Gaslight falls au

Mabel is just as smart as her brother she just doesn't like showing it off. She also likes to be underestimated by others sometimes.

So imagine Ford absolute confusion when Mabel walks in and See's both Ford and dipper struggling with some equations.

Mabel: you forgot a two and that should be squared not divided.

Dipper in the know: oh thanks Mabel

Ford not in the know: blue screens. Looking at Mabel's eyes to make sure she is not possessed( see she is not) and turns back to the equation absolutely dumbfounded on what just happened.

Ford later See's Mabel trying to dress and makeup a feral raccoon.

Ford......?????????

I feel like i'd remind Ford even more Bill, Bill who would be able to correct calculations and matched him in intelligence...and then do insane bullshit.

It’s 5 am and I’ve been up 2 hours and I have the thought of Ford dimension hopping for 30 years again.

30 years is a fucking long time. 30 years ago, I was still in my mom’s womb and while I don’t remember a whole lot of my early childhood (and I’m pretty sure I did jack nothing for the first three), just the thought it’s about to be 30 years for me to reach the age of 30 just put me in a bit of perspective in a way.

Also, I got bored and did this.

Just to emphasize even more to Ford’s being stuck in the multiverse and Stan working painstakingly in that Godforsaken portal for 30-fucking-years!!

So I started playing cookie rush kingdom again and…

I got White Lily Cookie as my first undetermined cookie. Is this guaranteed or?

The sound wasn’t even working

These are all the pages exclusive to the Barnes and Noble Book Of Bill, start at the end and work backwards, I couldn't be bothered adding one image at a time.

Sighs.

Im back

Au where ford actually kept track of Stan a little bit more than in canon. I’m talking the man would cast spells and ask the mail box “is my brother alive” or “where is my brother”

But of course because I love myself some angst, Fords questions were worded in such a way that he ONLY knew his brother was alive—but being alive doesn’t equal being okay. He gets his brothers location, but being realistic do you think Ford would think that he’s traveling so much because he’s running away or because he’s successful and LIKES to travel. “Oh look Stanley’s taking a vacation in Colombia. Although that’s a long vacations it’s been months… he must be pretty rich thanks to his products!” (Because remember ford had seen Stan’s commercials, so ford follows his line of logic to be that Stan is pretty successful.)

Of course one day Ford finally asks a slightly different question, one that crumples the narrative he created in his mind, “How is Stanley doing?”

And that’s when he learns that his brother is currently being transported to a hospital. That his brother is on the verge of death due to malnutrition, hypothermia, and because of an infected untreated wound. That his brother hasn’t been okay the last few years.

He learns that he asked all the wrong questions.

Dipper knew that his grunkles switching places was necessary to defeat Bill, but--- Dipper hadn't been able to tell them apart. It distresses him, that he confused the two, that he wasn't smart nor observant enough to pick up on their trick. These were his grunkles, his family--- the same things happened with Wendy and the shapeshifter, too, he had to rely on her to be clever enough to give him a sign. He can't be tricked again--- what if the shapeshifter comes back? What if Bill comes back? What if the inevitable next big bad is also an impersonator, a trickster, a disguise artist?

He starts to catalogue the minutia of his loved ones. Stan has a small scar through his left eyebrow, and walks slightly canted to the right because of his bad knee. Ford has a series of faint scars, like repeated scratches, over his hands (which always have a faint tremble to them) and always stands stiff-backed and aware of his surroundings. Mabel pitches up the end of her sentences, and has to sleep with a night light. Wendy has a stick-and-poke tattoo, poor and faded, on her right ankle; Soos holds a screwdriver like a chopstick when he's thinking about a tough problem. Waddles has a mark on his left haunch like a My Little Pony cutie mark.

He starts a journal, not for anomalies but for details. He leaves codes and symbols for himself so an imposter couldn't use his notes to become a more realistic copy. From an outsider's perspective, it would surely look erratic, insane, messy, but that's the point. A feeling he can't name, has never felt before, creeps in, unsettling and persistent and insidious--- what if the enemy is already among them? What if he hadn't noticed, because he wasn't good enough, wasn't discerning enough, wasn't a good enough brother/friend/nephew/person? He stops sleeping, eating, gets quiet. His family becomes concerned, but he can't tell them the truth--- what if someone is watching? Listening? Looking for weaknesses?

He stumbles into his room one night to find Ford reading his journal. He thinks, at first, that the downturn of Ford's mouth is a sure sign of a shapeshifter, because he's never seen his grunkle make this face before; but, no--- this look on Ford's face is horror, and terror, and guilt. Similar to how he looked when Stan's memories were erased, but even more personal. More like... more like Ford knew exactly what Dipper was feeling.

"Dipper," Ford says, even-toned but not enough to conceal his concern, "we need to have a talk about paranoia."

where is bill?

What's so interesting to me about Dipper is that he has no friends!

Okay, that's not necessarily true. dipper gets along very well with Soos, for example, and he's the twins' primary big brother figure for most of the show (we love u, soos!) dipper also grows very close to wendy, and in the end chooses to treasure their friendship more than he does any romantic feelings for her. he isn't lacking in terms of having important people in his life

but there's no one his age !

the closest we see to dipper having any sort of friend group is when he hangs out with wendy and his friends, which is obviously very telling of the fact that he wants to grow up, and he wants to grow up fast. consequently, he doesn't really want to be friends with them, per se, as much as he wants to impress them and prove that he's more than just a kid

(this is also contigent with his feelings for wendy, thematically speaking, but that's a conversation for another day)

along this train of thought is the fact that wendy's friends don't see him as a friend, either, simply because they are unequals out of age difference alone. this doesn't mean that they dislike him, in fact they're glad to have him around, but dipper's an accesory and not an actual member of the group, which is not necessarily a bad thing, simply that it's different

in general, the only person dipper interacts with in more or less an equal level is mabel, except her case is very different!

from her countless love interests, we see she has a very easy time interacting with people as early as tourist trapped, she is not shy ! she is not insecure ! she flirts, she giggles, she parties, you go mabel !

the most important element to this, i think, would be how in contrast to dipper, mabel manages to make a little friend group who share common interests and have similar personalities (candy and grenda)

this is not because dipper is somehow weirder and mabel the socially charming one. in fact, mabel doesn't enjoy a particularly popular reputation, and is thought of by pacifica as silly and childish during irrational treasure

from the very beginning, we see mabel and pacifica clash in a classic "weird vs mean" dynamic, with pacifica being someone who enjoys a favourable status in gravity falls (a little bit like a celebrity) and continuously antagonizes mabel, who hangs out with candy and grenda, consistently portrayed as weird and unpopular since their introduction during double dipper

regardless, mabel has no trouble making friends. she isn't a popular girl, but she is a social girl

you'd think that mabel, who has the wider support network, would be less dependant on dipper than dipper is on her

that's definitely the case in the valentine's day flashback shown in weirdmaggedon part 2, where mabel has a considerable amount of valentines, while dipper gets none and is mocked to the point of physically having to run out of class. he even hides his birthmark all the time because the kids made fun of him for it !

so it's very interesting that when we see the twins face the idea of permanent separation, it's mabel who doesn't want to leave dipper, not the other way around !

ps; pleeeeease send me asks about gravity falls i want to talk about this show so badly