Chapter Text
Three years since weirdmageddon,
It felt like it had been a lifetime ago. Three years of true calm did seem far longer when compared to the chaos from before. The two older pines twins hadn't come home in three years, only now had their adventures come to a natural break.
they had made some fascinating discoveries on their journeys out into the unknown, and rekindled their sibling bond finally after so many years. Of Course there were still some things the two would argue about, and it was most likely that Stanley would never have all of his memories back, though Ford was not convinced that all of that memory loss was from the memory gun, the two were getting on in years. Exploring the world together really helped bring the two closer again, and there was still so much to explore.
But their journey had to take a small break. Even if they hadn't wanted it to, want and need were very different things. They had a couple of reasons as to why they had to come back.
The first reason, the one they had mutually agreed to tell the younger Pines twins when inviting them to visit gravity falls again for the summer was how they missed their home, their family, their friends, and had to see them all again. It had been three years, which they both mutually agreed on being enough time to miss their great nephews enough to come back home for a while.
Then there was the second reason. The one they had decided to not inform the younger twins as to not worry them.
While they were out, exploring a strange anomaly in Ireland, the Abhartach, it had done a surprise attack on the two and managed to wreak its havoc upon them, leaving a nasty magically infected injury on Stanford. He was very glad to have Stanley at his side that day. For whatever odd reason, Stanley had a douse of knowledge on Irish folktales and knew exactly how to defeat the dwarfish vampire.
Stanley claimed that the only reason he knew so much about Irish folktales was because he was trying to get with an Irish girl. That explained everything Ford needed to know and he didn't press any further questions, just feeling thankful to Stanley for saving his life. But it still left Ford in a rough shape, that creature did a great number on him, and the two knew he needed to rest or else he wasn't going to heal properly. So they decided to come back.
Soos didn't question anything when the two came back, in fact, he graciously gave the mystery shack back to Stanley for the summer. Ford had quickly made himself at home in the basement, where he always used to spend his time, so it was nothing different. They had arrived a few weeks before the kid's summer began, so they could get all settled, familiarise themselves with their home and whatnot. Being out on the trip of a lifetime was fun and all but they both, especially Stan, missed home back in Gravity falls. Travelling was great, but there truly was something special about Gravity falls that nowhere else in the world could replicate.
—
"Reckon I could have gotten 'bout… thirty minutes of extra sleep with how long that bus is taking, hour tops."
Stan grumbled to himself, checking his watch for the fiftieth time in the past five minutes as he leaned against the bus stop sign. Ford chuckled quietly to his twins complaining, hands behind his back as he rocked on the balls of his feet.
"Yes but that probably would've fated the world into making them extra early."
Ford muttered in response, staring off at the empty road in front of the two. He always found Stan's incessant complaining to be something of amusement, though there were times where it could border on annoying but when it was meaningless times like this, Ford didn't mind the extra entertainment in his day. Stan gave some sort of Grumble of agreement before the two returned to their comfortable silence.
The bus finally arrived in front of them, the doors opened to reveal two fifteen year olds and a pig with them. The two younger twins (and waddles) had certainly grown since their last time in the quaint town, yet still remained vaguely the same.
Dipper was looking exactly how Ford and Stan predicted him to look. His hair was as messy and wild as ever and he was still rocking Wendy's hat after all those years. Acne seemed to have hit him pretty hard over the years, and he had an awful posture to himself, slouched over like he spent all day sitting at a computer, not getting up for hours at a time… which was exactly what he did.
Mabel on the other hand was dressed in that typical early 2000s style. She made the brightly coloured tank tops and boot cut jeans look like they were still all the rage. While Mabel did still love her sweaters, she found herself feeling a little too hot and bothered for that stuff in the summer now. She wore plenty of bracelets and had her hair tied up in a high ponytail. Acne also had hit her, but not as disastrously as it had with Dipper, and for what there was, it could easily be covered with some makeup.
And waddles was practically the same pig, he had just gotten a whole lot more fatter. He also had a lovely new sparkly pink sequined collar on. He was the most fashionable pig in town.
Mabel squealed happily and ran over, hugging Stan tightly, "Grunkle Stan! Great uncle ford! I missed you two so much!" She exclaimed happily, bouncing up and down in place, her voice seemed to get higher with each word she spoke. Stan laughed and hugged her back, while Ford gave a soft smile along with a short, polite wave. Dipper got himself off of the bus too, looking to be a whole lot more shy than his sister. While he was happy and excited to be back, it had been a while since he had actually seen his Grunkles. He was not exactly sure how to bring himself into conversations, so he awkwardly wandered over to Ford and gave a small smile with a wave, before bringing his hand back into his pocket, not saying a word, and making zero eye contact.
Ford gave a cheery smile to Dipper and decided to be the one to initiate conversation, knowing how hard simple conversation starters can be during teenage years. Especially for a boy as awkward as Dipper.
"Greetings, Dipper! How are you doing with your own journal now?"
Dipper's eyes brightened up a little to the helpful initiation of conversation from ford. He cleared his throat and spoke quietly, "it's, it's been going good! I'm on my second one now.. there's not much for me to explore back at home so, they're taking a while to fill.." his voice had dropped significantly since the last time Ford had seen him. Dipper had taken after Ford a little in his voice, not entirely, but there were little twinges of Ford's accent and flow of speech that could be occasionally heard in Dipper's voice.
Ford gave a small chuckle in response and nodded, "I can imagine the frustration." He said in response. Ford had very much missed Dipper's company. Having someone who had similar interests as him. While Ford loved Stanley, he couldn't deny that him and Stanley’s views on what was fun were polar opposites. Ford enjoyed going out and researching anomalies, getting plenty of time outdoors, the fresh air of forests bringing him a certain joy nothing else could. Whereas Stanley would much more prefer to watch his soap operas and drink his woes away, having very little care for whatever health conditions drinking that many Pitt Colas every day could cause.
After the greetings, the group all ventured back to the mystery shack, Stanley helping to carry the luggage. Ford had offered but the glare he received from his brother told him all he needed, Ford wanted to protest but didn't want to bring suspicion to the two teenagers, he really didn't want anyone making a fuss over his physical state. Stanley was more than enough for that sort of stuff.
Upon reaching the mystery shack, the group were greeted by Soos on the porch, who pulled the two younger twins into one of his bear hugs. The two laughed and hugged the big man back. Not much had changed in gravity falls. There were a few changes of stores in town but ultimately everything remained the same, including the mystery shack.
It was like the mystery shack was immune to ageing, the place barely looked any different to when the two younger twins first arrived in gravity falls three years ago. There were a few more fake attractions than before, and some of the older ones had been ridden off due to them getting a little too old and falling apart. Some of the attractions now were actually real though. Ford had begrudgingly given over some of the dead magical creatures he had previously experimented on. Sure it did take a little bit of convincing from both Stan and Soos, but eventually Ford crumbled and gave a few he was certain were dead just to get them to leave him alone.
Mabel was the first to run in, she went straight in and spun around, taking a deep breath of the dusty air of the mystery shack. Sure she liked California enough, but she knew gravity falls will always be one of her favourite places in the world, so it felt good to be back.
"How bout we have pizza for dinner? My treat," said Stan, a happy grin plastered on his face. Out of the two older pines, it was clear he was the one to miss the quaint town the most, and missed the two younger twins even more. The rest of the members of the shack nodded in agreement, and Dipper and Mabel went to unpack their stuff in the attic. Both Dipper and Mabel agreed that they will put a curtain up in the middle of the room to block both of their beds from one another to give each other some privacy. Neither minded sharing a room, but having that small bit of privacy was nice.
"I can't wait to see Candy and Grenda again! I haven't seen them in ages!" Mabel exclaimed as she set up her bedside table to have all of her required items; perfumes, hairbrush, different assortments of makeup and her newest scrapbook for the summer. Dipper chuckled quietly, "I mean, it's not like you guys don't talk all the time over call." He muttered as he placed his limited wardrobe of clothes in his wardrobe. Most of his clothes were the same as one another, just with a different variation of colours. Mabel dramatically rolled her eyes at her brother's comment, looking over with a happy grin, "yeah, well that's different!" The girl said, her hands resting on her hips, "calls can never beat real interaction!"
Dipper begged to differ, but just chuckled and nodded along. Most of his friends were online ones, and he was perfectly content with that. Real interactions scared the anxiety-ridden boy. And he hated embarrassing himself. He could never understand how social interactions came so easily to his twin sister, it was like she wasn't scared to make a fool of herself like how he was, and Dipper just couldn't understand how she could do that.
—
Downstairs in the kitchen sat the older twins. Ford was sitting on a chair, trying to ignore the pains in his not fully healed injuries as he sipped at his coffee. Stan kept giving awkward glances over to his brother, he wanted to ask how he was doing but knew his care would not be entirely received well from his brother, who would probably take it as him trying to make a fuss over him again. Eventually, it was Soos who asked. The handy man walked into the kitchen and upon looking at Ford, he could see just how drained the man was from the trip to the bus stop.
"Are you ok, Mr. Ford? You look awful! No offence, haha," the man asked, trying to say it in a way that didn't sound utterly rude. Ford glanced over before returning his gaze back to the coffee in his hand, but nodded, "I'll be fine, just in a little bit of pain at the moment, must’ve banged something on the way here. You don't need to worry about me," Ford gave a small smile to the two in the room with him, but it didn't convince either one of them. Ford had never been the best when it came to hiding his emotions.
Neither Stan or Soos decided to press into the matter though, Soos understanding that Ford needed his space, and Stan knew that if he were to make a fuss, Soos would catch on that something had happened on their trip.
After another ten minutes, the pizza delivery guy finally arrived with their pizzas. Soos got up and went to pay for the food. While Soos was gone, Stan got up and took a soda can out from the fridge, then sat down at the table with Ford, giving him a small, caring smile. "Just because Dipper is back," Stan started, Ford already knew where this was headed, "Don't think I will let ya go on any big adventures. Ya need to rest, I don't want ya dyin' on me this summer, got it, Poindexter?" Ford could only sigh and nod. He knew his brother's intentions were all good, but that wouldn't stop him from being annoyed about the restrictions he was under. Soos walked back in with the pizzas and Stan called up for the two younger twins, his voice being the loudest one of the three, "Mabel! Dipper! Pizza's here!" And the two quickly ran down the stairs, almost tripping over one another. The journey to gravity falls had been a long one, the two were starving after such a trip. They quickly loaded their plates with a few slices of pizza each and sat themselves down, scoffing down the food.
The room stayed still in a comfortable silence as they all ate. Everyone was just too hungry to strike any sort of conversation. Mabel and Dipper both had seconds, but after that, they were both completely stuffed with pizza, and couldn't manage one more bite. Stan looked over at the two teenagers, both looked like they were going to pass out from how much they had eaten in such a short amount of time and snorted, laughing at the two. Ford gave a small smile of amusement before saying, "I think you two should go to bed, you've had a long day today." The two younger twins agreed and took themselves off to bed, too happy to be back - and generally exhausted - to complain, pretty much as soon as they put their heads down on their pillows, they both fell into a deep sleep.
Both Ford and Stan decided that they'll go to sleep early too, though, ford more thought of it as Stan bullying him to go to bed, but he eventually co-operated. He had made himself a bedroom down in the basement in the room that used to be full of tapestries and statues of Bill since his old bedroom was now taken by Soos’ Abuelita. The last bits of the remains of the portal were still in the basement. There was certainly not enough left there for the portal to ever come back into running, but there was enough for the memories and pains the portal contained within Ford to remain in the room. He couldn’t quite let go of that just yet.
Ford waved goodnight to his brother and Soos before heading into the secret elevator in the vending machine and going down to the floor that contained his bedroom. Ford thought over the events of the past day. It was nice to have the kids over for the summer, and hopefully this summer in gravity falls won't be as horrific as their last summer three years ago in the town. He changed into his pyjamas before settling into his bed and picked up the book resting on his bedside table. Though, he didn't get to read much of it before sleep overtook the man. Once upon a time, Ford would've had to have taken some sort of medication to be able to sleep that quickly, but fortunately enough for the male, the past few years had really helped his mental health, especially in his sleep.
—
In the park of gravity falls, many vans drove in, some carrying trailers, all containing supplies, tents and other such stuff. Whistles blew and tents were built up, stands were being prepared and trailers were being set, all in preparation for the new event of the summer. A few people wandered the town in the dead of night, putting up posters, all in small groups. One of the people putting up posters took a few steps away from the lamp post he was working on and closed his eyes, taking a deep breath of air which turned into a large, unnatural grin. The lady putting up a poster on a post box next to the man’s lamp post glanced over, raising an eyebrow, "someone seems happy," she said with a chuckle. The man gave a small nod, letting a hand go through his golden curls of hair,
"It feels good to be back."
Chapter Text
"GRUNKLE STAN!" Mabel yelled from the porch.
Stan quickly hopped out of his seat and ran over, worried. He had pulled his brass knuckles out of his pocket in preparation but when he laid his eyes down on her, all he saw was Mabel’s big grin as she held up a newspaper. Stan sighed in relief, "jeez, kid! You could'a given me a heart attack!" Stan exclaimed.
The young girl apologised guiltily but her excited grin quickly returned as she pointed to one of the advertisements on the newspaper. "The circus has come to town! Can we go?! Please Please Please!" The girl begged, clasping her hands together and giving her Grunkle the puppy dog eyes.
Stan sighed, "Mabel. The circus is just a trick people like me use to steal people's money. It's basically just a bigger, travelling version of the mystery shack! Why would you ever want to go?"
Mabel pouted slightly, crossing her arms, "please!" she whined, "please can we go? I'm sure it'll be fun! More fun than being stuck in the house all day!" Stan couldn't argue with that. And perhaps he could 'borrow' some of the circus' attractions. "Fine, we'll go in the evening. Alright? That’ll be when it is at its brightest and busiest." Mabel cheered and hugged her Grunkle happily, practically jumping up and down, "thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" The girl exclaimed before running off to tell her brother. Stan chuckled and decided to go bring the news to his brother too. It would do ford some good to get out of the house for a bit, he decided. And the circus was one of the things Ford and Stan could both agree were utterly ridiculous. He made his way to the vending machine and punched in the code before getting in.
Ford sat at his desk, reading one of the books he had read a billion times before. He was incredibly bored of it, but had read nearly every book in the gravity falls library that was of any interest to him. He turned upon hearing the sound of the elevator moving. He watched as the doors opened to reveal Stan and gave a small, welcoming smile. Stan quickly walked over to Ford and leaned against his desk, clearing his throat slightly as he prepared himself for the upcoming protests his brother was bound to give.
"Mabel suggested that we all go to the Circus that's in town today. You're coming with, the sunshine'll do ya some good." Stan said, giving Ford a stern look of ' argue with me and see what'll happen' , but the old scientist just gave a soft smile and nodded, "Sounds good," he said, "I'll be sure to be ready." The conman was clearly stunned by his brother's instant compliance with the situation, having expected some sort of monologue about how cruel circus’ often were to their workers and animals, but tried to play it off, "yeah, yeah. uh, we'll be going more towards nightfall, so don't rush yourself. I'll see ya later. Alright?" Ford gave another nod and so Stan turned away and went to the elevator, stopping once he reached it, glanced back at his brother, before getting in and going back up. That went a lot better than expected.
Ford stood himself up, he had other reasons for wanting to go to the Circus besides the small entertainment it could provide. Ford supposed that if the circus was a legit one, maybe he could find his new subjects for studying. It was always worth a shot, the things he did for science. He picked up his trenchcoat and slipped it on, deciding that he will take a look at this circus early, just to familiarise himself with the place for later.
Ford took himself upstairs, heading through the kitchen to leave, but was abruptly stopped by his brother. "Where do you think you're going?" Stan asked, crossing his arms slightly. Ford had to resist rolling his eyes, he forgot that Stanley was currently treating him like the finest china that could break at the smallest disturbance, "I'm going on a walk. Is that fine?"
Stan considered it for a moment. While it was a good thing that Ford was leaving the house, he <i> really<i> didn't want his brother going monster hunting, not in the condition he was in. But he finally replied with, "alright, but take.. hm, dipper would wanna go monster hunting so .. take Mabel with ya, while I love havin' her here, she has far too much energy for a morning," he said with a small laugh, uncrossing his arms and letting his hands slip into his back pockets. Ford chuckled quietly and nodded. He had definitely not connected to his great-niece as much as he had with Dipper, so while the restrictions bothered him, at least it was a time for them to actually bond a little more. "Alright, I'll take her with me." He said, just to confirm it with Stan. His brother smiled happily, and went to go get Mabel.
Stan walked up to the attic, where the two teens were, sitting on either bed and doing their own things. "Mabel, sweetums, Ford's plannin' on going on a walk and has invited you to join him." Mabel looked over and gasped happily, grinning. "Really?!" She exclaimed, in all honesty, she had sort of accepted that she wasn't Ford's favourite out of Dipper and her. She didn't entirely mind as she understood why the two got along as well as they did, but it did still bother her. She loved her brother, but a chance to spend time with her great uncle without Dipper felt like a nice change. Stan nodded happily, "he's waiting downstairs for ya, so go down there when you're ready." Mabel was quick to her feet, having been ready to go out for a few hours, and ran downstairs happily.
Dipper looked at Stan, looking a little upset as he asked, "he didn't want me joining?" His face entirely exposed how much he was overthinking it. Stan chuckled and sat down on the bed next to Dipper, patting his shoulder gently, "in all honesty, I was the one who told him to take Mabel. Those two haven't really talked much, an' I know with you around he's more likely to go do something dangerous. Don't take it as anythin' against you, alright?"
That seemed to relieve Dipper of some of his worries. He let out a small sigh of relief and nodded to his Grunkle, smiling a little. Stan grinned and wrapped his arm around Dipper, patting his side, "and anyways! There's plenty of things us two can do together without those two!"
Dipper wasn't as sure of that as his Grunkle seemed to be, his Grunkle and him honestly didn't have as much in common as Dipper and his great-uncle Ford. But he still nodded, not wanting to upset his Grunkle with that, and smiled to him, "yeah, mhm!" Stan laughed and stood himself up, then ruffled Dipper's messy hair.
-
Downstairs, Mabel bounced over happily to her great-uncle, who was still standing in the kitchen, rocking on the balls of his feet as he waited for Mabel. Grinning happily, Mabel made her presence known. "Heya, great-uncle Ford!" Ford turned to look at her and gave a soft smile, "greetings, Mabel. Are you ready to go?" The teenage girl nodded happily, "Yup! Are you?" Ford nodded, putting his hands behind his back and holding them together "Well, let's go then." The two headed out of the house together.
"So… where are we going?" Mabel asked, smiling happily to Ford as they walked. The path to town was quite a peaceful one, surrounded by nature, the two enjoyed the scenery around them. Ford looked down at Mabel and said, "I thought we could check out that circus in town, just to know what to expect for later." Mabel gasped and nodded with great enthusiasm, "sounds great!"
Ford chuckled, the two walked, Ford listening to everything Mabel said as the young girl talked about life back in California. "Of Course it's not as fun as gravity falls.. I've really missed it here! Home is… alright, but it’s pretty boring," she said, Ford nodded along as he said, "I felt quite similar to my home in New Jersey. It was fine, and I have a lot of fond memories of my time there, but nothing can beat gravity falls." Mabel grinned to her great-uncle, nodding along.
They were soon to arrive in town. There was a poster advertising the circus on literally every surface possible. Mabel grinned as she went up to one of the posters. It contained a thin, pale lady with forest green hair and a scaly look to her skin, and read the words 'the snake lady'. "She looks so cool!" Mabel exclaimed, grinning. A different poster caught Stanford's eyes. He walked over to it and read the circus performer it contained. "Monsieur Billiam La Fortune teller.. that is some awful french." Mabel wandered over, looking at the poster. It didn't show a picture of anyone, just a crystal ball with two hands on either side of it, and an eye being shown in the crystal ball. Mabel sighed, "I've had enough mind readers for my life- but I wouldn’t mind taking a look at that one if you wanted to, Grunkle Ford!"
Ford continued to look at the poster, but soon looked back at Mabel and said, "we can go check it out now if that’s fine with you. I haven’t met many human mind readers in my life, I’d love to get the real human experience for once, see how they do it. I suppose it’s through understanding human behaviours and knowing how to ask the right questions." Ford smiled softly as he spoke, Mabel nodded along, "from my experience, they hide cameras in their merchandise!" Ford looked back at Mabel, a tad bit confused by that, but decided not to ask - they both headed towards the circus in the park together.
The first thing Ford noticed was just how colourful the place was. It was possibly the largest circus he had ever seen in his life. Music played from every single angle, colours drew your eyes into every last detail, even with it not being completely set up yet, it still looked magnificent, but also very overstimulating at the same time. Stanford couldn't help but bring his eyes more towards the ground, at least there the colours weren't as daunting on his retinas.
Ford glanced over to one of the closest stalls. A young woman was setting it up with a purple, misty crystal ball. It seemed to contain a whole ton of glitter inside as it sparkled and shimmered. Assuming this was the fortune teller he had seen in the poster, Ford's interest was immediately caught on the unfinished stall and he began to approach it, Mabel following along closely behind. "Uh.. excuse me." Ford said, waving his hand gently to try to catch the woman's attention. Without even looking at the two, the woman said in that one annoyed, tired tone, "we don't offer refunds for unfulfilled prophecies. The future is very unpredictable and you still have a lifetime ahead of you for it to be fulfilled."
Mabel giggled a little at that, looking up at her great uncle. Stanford just stared at the woman for a moment, processing what she had said, before clearing his throat a little and said, "no, no- I don't want a refund, I actually just wanted to meet the fortune teller, that's all." The woman glanced up at Ford. Her eyes were a dark brown that seemed to absorb any light around like a black hole. She stood up straight, she was a very tall woman, much taller than Mabel or Ford. She asked, "and why do you want to meet him?"
Ford brought his hands to behind his back, interlocking all 12 fingers within each other. "I was just wondering if he could uh, predict my future maybe. Just so I know if it's worth coming back later for." He lied through his teeth, giving a small smile to the lady as she sighed and nodded, realising if this went well, he'll spend more money on the circus, which meant she got more money for herself. She walked behind the tent to the caravan parked behind it and knocked on the door. "BILLIAM! You have a customer wanting their future predicted, get your ass out here!"
Ford and Mabel exchanged glances, Ford rocked on his heels a little as he waited patiently. Mabel stared at the caravan window, it being covered by a golden curtain, but she could still see the shadows of a person scrambling about inside. Ford also noticed it, but decided not to watch out of respect for the person's privacy. Mabel couldn’t help the snort she let out as she watched the person trip over in the caravan, finding this person's clumsiness to be incredibly amusing.
Eventually though, the caravan door swung wide open. A lanky, dark skinned person stood at the door. Their hair was curly and dyed a golden colour, and their eyes were covered by some star-shaped sunglasses, but you could still feel their stare. They looked pretty dishevelled, like they had just woken up and had to throw on the first pieces of clothes they could find. A dark button up shirt (which was in fact, not buttoned up) and black trousers. Their gender was a little difficult to determine, there was an odd femininity in their face, yet their body language screamed male. They walked over, rubbing their eyes a little as they let themself get used to the brightness of the sun.
Ford stared at the person. He couldn't deny, they were genuinely quite attractive, looking to be in their late 20s. The so-called 'fortune teller' went to talk to the woman that got him out but his eyes landed on Mabel and Stanford, seeming to freeze for a moment, before standing himself up straight and clearing his throat. "So.. I'm guessing the one wanting their future predicted is the girl?"
Ford recognized that voice.
The person standing in front of him sounded similarly like the chaos demon that had ruined a large part of his life. Bill. His name was even a longer version of Bill! Though this all could just be a major coincidence, plenty of people sounded like Bill! Hell, one of the gnomes sounded exactly like Bill! That had definitely given Ford a scare the first few times. Ford decided though, for the sake of ‘just in case’, he will do a bit of digging, just to make sure. He had done the same for the gnome, why wouldn’t he investigate the slightly more suspicious human?. "No.." Ford started, speaking slowly as he thought over his words very carefully. "It's for me."
Billiam chuckled quietly, finding the man's admission to be very amusing. "Come on in then, Stanford! Come have your fortunes foretold by one of the greatest fortune tellers of all time!" They walked back towards the caravan, opening the door wide for Stanford and gestured for him to go in first. The older male stared at the blonde, suspicious of him. He didn't quite trust them to be near Mabel, just in case. He had an uneasy feeling. "You wait here," he told Mabel, before following after the fortune teller, climbing inside of his caravan.
The caravan looked oddly nice, though Ford was certainly questioning why this guy brought him in here. Perhaps it was because of how the stall wasn't set up yet. The male gestured to the seats and said, "make yourself comfortable! I'll make your favourite coffee, yeah?" He smiled over. Ford raised an eyebrow as he stared at the male. It couldn't be Bill. Surely.. they had blown that triangle to smithereens in Stanley's mind! And if Bill had come back, why hadn't he tried to kill the pines family instantly as soon as he came back? This man was far too friendly to be the Bill Ford knew and had grown to resent. Far too calm. Ford had lost himself so far into his own mind that he had forgotten to answer the male's question.
The fortune teller chuckled quietly, not exactly caring that Ford never responded to him. They put on the kettle and prepared two cups for some coffee, then walked over to the couch and sat down, patting the seat next to him as an invite for Ford to sit with them. Ford looked over before sitting down awkwardly, playing with his fingers gently.
"I know you’re not here to get your fortune told, might as well ask the real questions already rather than wasting your own time." The fortune teller grinned, their grin was wide and didn't look natural in Ford’s opinion, like it stretched just a little bit too wide than any natural smile ever should, Ford thought, though he supposed he could just be looking into it a little too much. Ford looked at the person, deciding to play it safe for now, "what's, uh, what's your name?"
The person snickered a little, "it depends on who you ask, but here I'm known as Billiam. I already know your name, Stanford Pines. You're a pretty well known guy in the magical folks community! The man who defeated bill cipher.. it's a shame you didn't actually defeat him though,"
Ford could feel his fears getting confirmed while talking to Billiam. He slowly put a hand to his raygun, just in case it all went to shit. "What do you mean 'I didn't actually'? Bill's gone. I saw it with my own eyes."
The younger-looking male just shrugged, "I thought I taught you better than this, Sixer. Or is your age finally starting to infect your intelligence? I'm sitting right next to you, therefore, you didn't actually defeat Bill cipher!"
Ford instantly stood himself up, instinct had him pulling the raygun out of his pocket and pointed it directly at the Blonde in a matter of seconds. His glare was intense but Bill just stared back with a calm smile. "Go on, Fordsie. Shoot. But I don't think you've taken into account, you don't know if it will release me from this flesh prison, could just kill whoevers body I'm inhabiting and release me back into the world. Plus, I have a life and identity in this universe now! You'll be sentenced for the murder of Billiam! Don't wanna risk that, do ya? There are plenty of people around right now to hear if I scream, or if you shoot.."
Ford stared at Bill, his face with a look of complete dumbfoundedness. He slowly lowered his raygun, but kept it in his hand still. Bill had him in check there. "Why are you still here?! You should be ridden from the world. Trapped in wherever you were taken." Bill just gave a sly grin, standing himself up and walked past Ford, patting Ford on the shoulder as he passed the older male, Ford quickly turning to keep his eyes on him. "You see, Fordsie, that’s for me to know and you to find out!"
Ford sighed quietly, looking away briefly but quickly turned back to where Bill was, only for the blonde to have disappeared. "Bill?! Bill!" He suddenly felt a hand trail across his back. He turned around to see Bill standing behind him, grinning. "I'm still here, sixer, don't start panicking, I won't leave ya just yet!" He laughed and turned around to put a teabag in one of the mugs, and a teaspoon of coffee grains in the other, he then poured the water from the kettle into them both. "I've gotten pretty good at this human stuff! Especially when making drinks! Are you surprised, sixer?" He asked, before heading to the fridge to grab the milk.
Ford stared at the younger male, he couldn't help but stumble over all words he was meant to say. But slowly nodded, clearing his throat as he managed to muster up, "yes- a little.. But that’s besides the point! What are you doing back in Gravity Falls? What sick things do you have planned, Cipher?!" He hated how calm Bill was, just standing there with a polite smile at his lips. It was unsettling to Stanford, and it made him feel stupid for feeling like they should be fighting.
Bill chuckled at Ford’s accusations, placing a coffee mug down for Ford and taking a sip of his own coffee, "Someone clearly has a lot of questions. Why don't we talk about it over a game of chess, just like old times. What do ya say?"
Ford almost considered it for a moment, but caught himself before he could really think about it. "I will never play chess with you again, you demon! I have better things to do with my time than indulging in your tricks now.” The demon just grinned up at Ford and nodded, "Of Course! Ofcourse, you’re clearly a very busy man. How about some other time? I suspect that you'll be coming back later to see the show! We can maybe talk after that!"
He opened up the caravan door for Ford to leave. Ford gave a glare and quickly got out of the caravan, "Absolutely not." Ford walked back over to where Mabel had been standing. The lady from before had given her a chair to wait on, so she sat there, on her phone. Bill grinned to Ford, "see ya later, Stanford!" He called out before shutting the caravan door.
Mabel looked up at her Great uncle and stood herself up. The man looked completely stunned. Mabel beamed, assuming that he had seen some amazing magical predictions, she asked, "sooo, how did it go?"
Ford looked down at her, taking a moment, before gulping the lump in his throat.
"Bill’s back."
-
Mabel and Stanford's walk home was less than quiet to say the least. The young girl asked a quadrillion questions that Ford just simply didn't know the answer to. There were a lot of 'I don't know's as the two wandered back to the mystery shack. Mabel's memories of Bill made the girl shudder, Bill terrified her, seeing first hand just what he was capable of, and now that she's grown up, she could see just how unbelievably lucky they all had gotten when defeating Bill. There were many nights where she had woken up screaming from nightmares because of Bill. She couldn't even begin to imagine her great uncle's nightmares.
The mystery shack was in view now. Ford turned to Mabel and grabbed her by the shoulders, looking down at her as he said, "you can not tell <i> anyone <i> that Bill is back. Do you understand?" Mabel looked a little taken back, confused as to why she couldn't tell her brother, she said, "but surely the more that know, the better, right?"
Ford shook his head. The girl's logic made sense, but he didn’t want to cause a panic. If Stanley knew that Bill was back, Ford knew damn well his alone time outside would disappear further than it already had. "Knowing Dipper and Stanley, they both will go head first with confronting Bill, which will only put them in more danger. We'll tell them at some point, but for the meantime, we'll just do our best to avoid the fortune teller stall." Mabel nodded, Ford made perfect sense to the girl, she knew how they sometimes weren't the most rational of people and acted a little on impulse, but so did she and Ford, so she supposed it ran in the family or something. "Piece of cake! I don't think either of them like fortune tellers anyway. With Gideon n all," Mabel beamed, Ford chuckled and they both continued to walk.
They strolled into the mystery shack, and Mabel greeted the entire house with a loud, "WE'RE BACK!" Though, no one answered her, except the quiet sounds of bickering and arguing from the living room. Ford stepped in after Mabel and the two exchanged concerned glances, then slowly headed towards the living room.
Dipper and Stan both stood in the living room, yelling at each other, while Soos sat on the floor. Eating a remaining pizza slice from last night. In the middle of the three of them was one of Stan's obscure, ripoff board games that only the board game enthusiasts and elderly homes have ever heard of.
Ford sighed in relief to know it wasn't anything too serious. Mabel stormed over to the two and said, "hey, you guys! What's all this arguing about? You guys shouldn't be arguing!"
The three all turned to look at Mabel. "Oh, hey dudes!" Soos said with a smile, waving to Ford and Mabel, not taking much notice of the argument going on in front of him. Dipper pointed a finger at Stan and yelled, "Grunkle Stan is cheating AGAIN! And I'm sick of it! How am I meant to win if he steals my cards?" Stan tutted, crossing his arms. "Exactly! That's the point! Cheatin' means that I will win! If you wanna win, you gotta start cheatin'!"
Turning in his heel, Dipper glared at Stan, mimicking how Stan had crossed his arms and straightened his back, but quickly returned to his usual slouch. He furrowed his brows as he said, "you can't cheat your way out of everything, Grunkle Stan! You're going to get caught eventually!"
Ford couldn't help but chuckle quietly as he watched the two back and forth. He muttered, "the boy has got a point, Stanley." Though, that only got a glare at Ford from Stan. "And that's why when you get caught cheating, you start lying! It's a flawless system!" Stan said, his serious expression turning into a grin. Mabel sighed - rubbing her eyelids slightly as she shook her head, "Grunkle Stan… you're genuinely going to get arrested for this stuff one day!"
Stan laughed and shook his head, uncrossing his arms and walked over to Dipper, bringing his hand up and ruffled his hair,* "you're a good kid, Dipper! But you ain't gonna get everything in life by playin by the rules all the time."
Dipper sighed and nodded, he found it was best to just agree with his Grunkle on matters like this, it was impossible to convince the old man of otherwise.
"So," Dipper started, slipping his hands into his pockets. He awkwardly glanced at Mabel and Ford before returning his gaze towards the floor. "Where did you guys go, anyway?" He said, badly trying to hide the jealousy in his voice. Of Course Dipper would feel just a little jealous that Mabel got to spend time with their great uncle Ford and not him instead, but he did admittedly have an alright time playing board games with Stan and Soos.
Mabel looked up at the older male, unsure of how much she was allowed to say, so she opted not to speak at all. Ford smiled softly to her, then turned to Stan. He cleared his throat and said, "we went to take a quick look at that new carnival. It looks quite nice actually, though, a little big. I'm surprised they get enough money to keep it running to be honest."
Stan laughed a little, sitting himself down in his armchair as he said, "it's easy! They avoid taxes since they live in caravans. They're probably not an official business either, and their workers are usually severely underpaid but signed a contract to make it so they can't leave."
Ford's eyes lit up. Ofcourse! That was it! The entire walk home he had been trying to figure out why the hell Bill would stay working in such a demeaning form of work. "Stan, you're a genius!" He said as he strode off to the vending machine.
Stan looked utterly confused, "is.. anyone going to explain that-? No?"
-
Ford sat down on his bed, staring down at his six-fingered hands quietly. He thought about everything that Bill had said to him. He felt something poking his skin in his pocket. He slipped his hand into his pocket and pulled out a small piece of paper. Ford raised a brow, staring at the paper and slowly unfolded it.
There was a drawing inside. It looked as if a child had drawn it, done with crayons. It contained a picture of Bill in his original form shaking hands with Ford, and had the words 'the good old days' written in yellow crayon. Ford glared at the piece of paper and angrily slammed it down on his bedside table, laying back in his bed as he tried to think about anything other than Bill.
But it was to no avail. No matter how hard he tried, his thoughts eventually wandered back to Bill. What was that drawing about? From the looks of things from the surface, Bill missed having his power. But if that was the case, why draw that moment in time? Sure he had power then, but he could've drawn weirdmageddon. He had far more power in that moment than he did in the moment he had drawn. And why would he give Ford that drawing? To mess with him? If so, it sure as hell was working alright.
Ford sighed and laid down properly in his bed, letting out a sigh as he rubbed his face with his hands. He tried to consider all of this from every angle possible but every angle seemed to hide a different bit of information another angle answered. There was no way to get a full explanation without directly asking the demon himself, and Ford really didn't want to do that.
Eventually though, Ford suddenly fell asleep on his bed. The next thing he knew he was wandering through the forest of gravity falls at night, journal in hand. Ford already knew he was dreaming, having become very good at lucid dreaming. He blinked and looked around, before he began to wander through the forest.
Ford was being watched, and he was well aware of it. He felt the trees staring at him as he walked along, judging his every step. Ford didn't know where he was going, but his legs seemed to, directing him through the forest, going where he needed to go. In his mind, he memorised the layout of where he was heading to, afterall, every dream had a meaning. And more often than not, Ford's dreams were directly related to his real life, so he made a conscious effort to remember things in his dreams that he could use in real life.
Eventually, Ford came to a small clearing in the forest. The midnight glow glistened in the wet grass. As ford looked around, that's when he noticed a statue, though, from the angle he was from, he couldn't entirely make it out. He wandered over to it slowly, it was only once he stood directly in front of it that he realised exactly what it was.
A statue of the demon who had been torturing him for years. Bill.
Ford moved a hand to touch the outstretched hand, but quickly stopped himself, knowing of the dire consequences that could come out of that. Instead, he moved to touch the statue's top hat. Upon touch, the top hat broke off and fell to the ground. Ford took a step back, expecting something to pop out of the top, but after a moment of silence, he realised nothing was going to happen. He thought back to the funeral he and Mabel had done with the statue, remembering the unicorn hair. He went to look down at it, just to see if it was still intact.
Just as abruptly as he fell asleep, Ford woke up. He knew exactly where he was going to go.
-
Ford snuck out of the house, deciding against telling anyone where he was going as he wouldn't be able to provide a good explanation without mentioning anything that Stan would've refused. It wasn't too hard to leave unnoticed, Stan and the two younger twins had been so engrossed in their weird duck detective show that Ford could've set off a live bomb and they still wouldn't have noticed.
He began to follow the directions he had gone in his dream, holding journal number 5 close to his chest. While on his journeys with his brother, he honestly hadn't been working too hard on the journals. Mostly because there wasn't all too much in terms of magical anomalies outside of gravity falls. It was only until they decided to go more into European areas where they started to get a slight rise in numbers of anomalies, but that journey had been cut short due to Ford getting injured.
Ford soon reached the clearing he had seen in his dream. It all looked the same, yet slightly different. Older. Wiser. He stepped through, a bit further, which is when he saw it.
The one difference.
The statue of bill, while in the dream had been in decent condition, now it was a crumbled mess on the floor, having entirely broken apart. Ford could feel the alarm bells ringing in his ears. He quickly ran over and checked the unicorn hair ring and, like how he had predicted, it was broken, completely broken.
He quickly got to work, sitting himself down on the dry grass and opened his journal. He turned To a set of two blank pages and began to sketch what he could remember from his dream on one side, and the reality in front of him on the other, then, in the middle, he drew what he could remember of Bill's new form.
Around the drawings, Ford began to write down his thought process about the whole situation. Making sure his handwriting was neat, and perfect.
'He is back. That angular piece of space garbage is back. My old muse's new look is human, oddly enough. I hope he is finding it miserable in that body. I'm unsure as of yet whether that makes him more or less powerful than he was as the triangular demon, hopefully the latter. I have no clue on what kind of powers he has now, whether he has all of them, or none at all. Though, I don't believe him to have all of his powers, or else he would've simply taken over the world by now. Why was he so calm with me? As if I didn’t hate his guts, like everything that had happened between us hadn’t, and he was merely talking to an old friend. I'll find out more later.'
Stanford walked closer to the crumbled statue of Bill, taking a look at it, then slowly reached down to grab the broken-off hand that was previously outstretched. He picked it up and slipped it into one of his coat pockets, planning to run some experiments on it later.
After a deep breath of the fresh air, Stanford decided it was best if he were to go back home, he didn't want to risk his luck any more than he already had with sneaking out.
Suddenly, in the distance, he heard footsteps, rapidly approaching. Ford's eyes widened slightly and he opted to hide behind a tree, just to see who it was. Ford knew it was probably just some teenagers, or an animal, but it was best to be safe than sorry. He didn’t want to be seen scrounging around what he assumed had been either Bill’s dead body or his grave statue.
A minute in of waiting, Stanford questioned if he should just go home, when he heard that distinct, shrill voice of his old muse, sounding to be completely out of breath,
"Holy fuck.. I swear this bloody thing.. moves.. every time.. I, STUPID FLESH BAG BREATHE! Oh my god.. I HATE THIS STUPID.. whew!"
The distinct smell of weed filled Stanford's nostrils, he cringed a little to the strong scent, but didn't say anything, not wanting to be caught out. Though the sounds of Bill struggling in the body did bring a specific kind of joy to Ford. He carefully looked around the tree, just to properly see what was going on.
With his back turned to Stanford, Bill stood in his new, human body, smoking a joint as he stared at the crumbled statue of himself. Ford couldn't help but notice how straight Bill's back was, bent over to study the remains of the statue in a perfect 90° angle. He wore a button up shirt with pretty much most of the buttons undone and light brown shorts. The clothes hugged his figure nicely, showing off that slim body and that small, feminine waist, and those toned, long legs and arms, and that natural arch in his back.
Which all were perfectly normal things to notice about someone you hated! Obviously, he was studying the man to make sure there wasn't anything suspicious going on! Ofcourse.
"Where is.. huh,"
The demon slowly turned around. Ford quickly hid back behind the tree and pulled his Raygun out from his pocket, just in case. After a moment, he turned around to see where Bill was, but there wasn't a single trace of him in sight. Ford let out a small sigh of relief, before turning around, just to be met with Bill standing right next to him.
"Stooped to stalking now have we? Jee, sixer, I'm almost impressed! I'd be more impressed if you weren't so damn obvious in your stalking."
Ford pretty much moved instantly without thinking, pointing his Raygun directly at Bill in between his eyes. Bill's eyes widened slightly but he merely laughed in that condescending tone, and brought his hand up to push the gun out of his hand.
"Calm down, kid! Maybe your classmates were right when awarding you that 'most paranoid person' award! Haha!"
Ford sighed quietly, staring at Bill with more confidence than he had earlier, "Bill."
"That's my name!" The demon grinned happily, resting a hand on his waist. It riled Ford up so much to see the demon functioning so well in a human body. How the heck was Bill doing so great in this body, but when it was Stanford’s body, suddenly Bill was the clumsiest thing He had ever seen? He was practically useless when he used to possess Ford!
"Tell me the truth. Why are you back?!" Ford exclaimed, having no idea where he was going with this, but decided that pretending to know what he was doing was the best course of action right now.
The demon merely shrugged and placed a hand on Ford’s shoulder, which was immediately shrugged off. "I have just about as much of a clue as you, dear Fordsie! Why don't you try working that one out in that big head of yours? And when you do, we can talk about it over a nice game of chess! Just like old times."
His eyes narrowed slightly, Ford questioned what Bill's intentions were, this was the second time he had asked about chess. Whatever the intentions were, they couldn't be good. "What," he spoke accusingly, "so you expect me to believe that you have no clue why you are here, and that you just… are?! I don't buy it. You're always planning something , Cipher. You might as well just say so now."
Bill laughed a little, bringing his hand back onto Ford's shoulder which was once again removed by Ford, this time by grabbing his hand and pushing it off. "Riddle me this, Pines . I've been back for ages now. You just didn't know because I ran FAR away from this stupid hick town as fast as my legs could carry me! Would I do that if I had plans of things to do in this town?"
Seemingly trying to work Bill out, Ford stared at him for a moment, before stating bluntly, "yes. Yes you would, Cipher ."
Bill's expression dropped to one of annoyance for a moment. He looked like he was going to say something but eventually just gave up and sighed, "Believe it or not, Sixer, but this is the last place in the entirety of space that I wanted to be."
Ford couldn't help but stare at Bill in disbelief, not sure of what to say. Did Bill really expect him to believe that? Surely not. Did Bill really think Ford was that much of an idiot? Or had Ford really overestimated Bill’s intelligence?
Bill reached into his pocket and pulled out a bunch of tickets. He grabbed Ford's hand and placed them into his palm, "consider it an old friend's discount. There's a few extra there in case that family tree of yours has produced any more oxygen-stealing meat robots since the last time I saw you. I'll see you tonight, alright?"
He took one last puff of his joint and smiled as he watched the smoke go into the air, before beginning to walk away. Without thinking, Ford suddenly blurted out, "you really shouldn't be smoking that. Especially if you're going to perform in a bit."
Stopping in his tracks, Bill's smile grew on his face. He turned to look at Ford and murmured, "it's sweet that you care about my wellbeing, Fordsie, but I assure you, these lungs have breathed in far more deadly death smoke even before I ever inhabited it. Bye now," and he walked off.
Ford stared at the direction Bill went and sighed quietly, he didn't know why he said that. He turned on his heels and began his walk back to the mystery shack.
Notes:
Just so y'all are aware, this is my first ever fic, so tips n stuff are all welcome, also, my characterization for Bill will get better past this chapter, I wrote the beginning a while ago and didn't entirely know how I wanted to portray him, but I do now, which is more obvious in the end
edit: So! It's been over a year and I'm finally coming back to this! I've updated the first two chapters with slightly better writing, and changed bits to be more in character and fit with the IMPROVED PLOT (i have a plan now)
I hope you enjoyed