“Gravity Falls- Water Tower”.

You being. You thing. How dare you make such a beautiful au. I love you.

How does shermie/the kids react to Stan, and do Soos or Wendy have any roles in this au?

(Referring to Asylum Ford AU)

thank you! I’m so glad you enjoy it, it’s very fun to think about. I love you, random citizen!

The kids were never told much about Stan and Ford. They have no idea at the beginning that Ford allegedly killed Stan, and they only barely know about Ford’s history. They mostly see Ford as a kind of strange and unhinged old man, who just so happens to need constant supervision. Ford loves them to bits, and told them stories about him and Stanley, and about his time at gravity falls. Shermie told the kids not to believe everything that Ford says, but lets Ford tell them anyway. What’s the harm, right?

when they get to gravity falls, Ford tells the kids that this is where Stanley ‘disappeared’. Dipper becomes enraptured by the idea of solving the mystery of what happened to Stanley Pines, only spurred on by the discovery of Journal 3 (Shermie is doing his best to discourage this). So he and Mabel have spent the whole summer trying to learn more about him. Stan coming through the portal was still a shock though, because they had found Stan’s death certificate and Ford’s arrest reports. They were half convinced that Ford was going to end the world (probably based on something McGucket said). So finding out Stan’s alive and was in another dimension hits pretty similar to how it did in canon.

Shermie has trouble grasping it. He’s spent 30 years thinking Stan was dead and murdered by his own twin in a fit of madness. He’d seen Ford’s breakdowns many times, he’d had to learn to live with his insane little brother, and had to help him live in the world with other people. Ford had insisted that Stan wasn’t dead, but he also confessed in court. Shermie feels bad for big believing Ford about it. But also angry. A bit at Ford, a bit at himself, but mostly at the world. His little brother was alive this whole time, and his other brother was falsely arrested for murder. Needless to say, he’s shocked.

I like to think that, in lieu of not having the mystery shack, Soos starts a handyman business. He’s a plumber, electrician, mechanic and pretty much anything else you need him to be. He’s the best handyman in Gravity Falls, so he gets decent business. He spends most of it on Abuelita and anime figurines.

when Soos finds out Wendy needs a job for the summer, he offers Wendy a job as his assistant. Wendy kinda hates it, but Soos pays well, and he lets Wendy slack off and hang with her friends, so it’s not too bad.

the pines are living in the shack over the summer, which hasn’t been touched in 30 years. So Shermie hires Soos to do maintenance and make sure it’s livable. So Soos and Wendy are just generally around a lot.

just realised how much I wrote for this. Damn, my poor thumb.

Dude thank you so much for portraying Dipper as the asshole (affectionate) he is. He’s a ball of anxiety and awkward social skills but he’s also five seconds away from slamming doors on people and swinging punches. My beautiful son stands on BUSINESS

fuck yeah, man. it's one of my favorite things about dipper (as you can probably tell).

he's got anxiety. he gets panic attacks. he's paranoid and sweaty and super awkward. AND he's absolutely done with everyone's shit all the time. it's that stan pines snark coming out in him.

i just adore when characters have contrasting personality traits like this -- it fleshes them out so well and creates really interesting duality.

here, friend, have some of my favorite shithead dipper faces:

go ahead, try his patience. it'll be fun.

sometimes I'll see a post about some discourse and just think "who the actual fuck is getting into fights about that"

I headcanon that all of Yoda's finest teacups were made by younglings

In fact most masters of the order's finest teacups were made during crèche crafting time when the kids were learning pottery.

Something that deals me psychic damage is when kid Stan is portrayed as trying to make Ford laugh all the time. Trying to distract him from every single bad thing that was going on, to protect him. I mean, they were both always defending and helping each other, but Ford was the one who needed it more, so Stan assumed the role of the protector more often than not and it stuck with him.

Of course, in some cases, like with bullies, there were simple solutions: put up enough of a fight so that they will not bother again. Other stuff is different though. Things like Ford's hands, their parents and other adults in their lives. Here they'd just have to endure it, but Stan would still try to shield him from those as much as possible. And that's achieved by being a well of positivity and hiding his own emotions.

I also feel like Ford would buy it and think that yes, Stan really is just that cheerful and uncaring about all the bad stuff, perhaps willfully ignorant. I think it would start to annoy him a bit. Cause he has always known that his brother isn't stupid, just lazy (at least that's how it looked to him). This would seem like more of that. Him avoiding responsibility and difficulty

storyboard design fords from 2 months ago i forgot to share here i think

doing perimeter patrols is a common but little known ptsd symptom, and i think ford doing it not only makes sense for him post-portal but also is a great way to force awkward, impromptu conversations between him and everyone else

Playtime 🥳

sigh, today i'm thinking about ford settling back into the lab after he first comes home, and seeing the proof of how hard stan worked to bring him home

stan was always the "dumb one" between them, always riding on ford's coat tails and slacking off. but he was able to do, on his own, without help from anyone, what it took ford 12 phds, fiddleford's help, and bill's guidance to do. just based off of ONE of ford's cryptic journals and whatever scattered notes and blueprints he was able to find, all while having never graduated high school.

ford having to confront how hard stan worked, how far he pushed himself, how smart he actually is

EDIT: also, stan only had journal 1, that's NOT the one he was working with bill in! that's his first few years in gravity falls, when ford was just as ignorant as stan was! there probably isn't a lot for stan to work with in there.