#shermie pibes

[lovemesomeagnst]

So for your Carmen Stan au how did Ford find out about Stan being brainwashed?

Okay so this ends up being different than in CS BECAUSE we have the added character of Alex, who’s their nephew so when the whole brainwashing and kidnapping thing happens Team Red would obviously be the first to know.

Ford and Fiddleford would realise something was amiss and are actually concerned for a while since Stan suddenly disappeared off grid and stopped appearing for his capers and all. At this stage I think they’ve both come to an agreement that Stan’s intentions were good (much like how Jules and Chase had believed in Carmen near the end) so the sudden inactivity from Stan was already alarming. Ford tries to rationalise to himself that Stan’s probably busy even though his gut screams at him that something is wrong.

It kinda sucks for him since he doesn’t have a proper way to contact Stan and they only ever see each other if Stan reaches out first or if they run into each other during one of his capers. Stan also hasn’t been checking in on Tate or Fiddleford like he liked to do sometimes so that was another thing. Hence the long silence brings Ford some anxiety. It wasn’t the first time he lost sight of Stan (happens all the time due to the secrecy but Ford at least has tabs based on report sightings of Stan from around the world) but it’s been like…ages and now that they were kinda on even/good terms Ford feels like something is wrong but he doesn’t know what.

When Stan finally resurfaces, Ford and Fiddleford are relieved only to be bewildered when Stan steals and doesn’t return the items to Fiddleford or like authorities. They find the behaviour suspicious but they could never get close enough to confront him, which was another red flag since Stan always interacts with them even on his missions (like a simple greeting or banter or teasing). So Stan avoiding them AND taking things but not returning them like his usual routine is very very weird.

Ford stresses over this change for a long time. He has no idea why his brother suddenly seems to change ways and change sides apparently. Stan not acknowledging him and actively avoiding him (cause Stan just thinks of Ford and Fidds as authorities after him now) hurts Ford because he has no idea why he’s being ignored either when they were on good terms already.

Ford eventually finds out from Alex. The poor boy had been stressed out of his mind in a dilemma on whether he should tell the rest of the family or just keep it to Team Red. Like I mentioned in a previous post here, he faces constant dilemmas regarding keeping Stan’s business away from the rest of the family, or to involve them as help. Eventually the whole brainwashing situation gets hopelessly bad and stressful and after discussion with Carla and the rest of Team Red, Alex believed his dad and uncle Ford deserves to know what’s actually going on.

Alex calls for a family meeting and Ford visits Shermie’s place and both brothers are shocked at what Alex reveals to them. This is also how Shermie finds out that Alex is Stan’s hacker and Ford is stunned that the entire time he comes over to rant about Stan, Alex had been part of it from the start. There’s a brief moment of Ford calling Alex out for being the reason Stan was able to escape his capture a couple times and it’s a bit hilarious. Shermie and Ford are obviously super caught off guard by the revelation that Alex was helping Stan the entire time and had somehow kept quiet over it for ages but then the seriousness of the situation finally settles in and both brothers are horrified.

Ford is absolutely grief stricken that his brother’s mind was brainwashed before he goes completely furious because how dare some evil organisation (that they’re just learning about now because Alex and Team Red decided it was time to tell the family everything) try to use his brother and mess with his mind. He immediately demands more information from Team Red so he can find a way to help.

When he gets back and meets with Fiddleford again he explains everything as Fiddleford is devastated. They both actually meet up with Team Red in this au cause Alex kinda has to let them (Shermie demanded him to do so) and also Ford wouldn’t take no for an answer, saying that Stan is his twin and he has rights to help in fixing the problem and saving his brother. Ford finding out about the situation definitely puts him on edge because his brother is hurt and not in his right mind and Ford wants to help but he has no idea where to start and he feels something akin to grief and fury creep up his throat.

They eventually learn how Stan got brainwashed (the use of the memory gun) and Ford actually gets mad at Fiddleford for a short while (mainly due to high tensions and emotions running on high from everything) and blames him for the creation of such a device before immediately regretting his words and apologising dw. Ford secretly fears that Stan’s mind can’t be restored back to normal but he buries it deep down and hyperfixates on helping Team Red find a solution to the problem, even bringing it up with ACME to get their resources and help.

He eventually helps in building the device to bring back Stan to his right state of mind but there’s definitely a lot of complicated emotions in the process. Mainly Ford having to grapple with losing his brother and desperately trying to fix him and bring him back cause ngl they’ve finally reached an understanding and he’d die before he let some stupid evil organisation rob him of a proper chance to actually sit down and talk with his brother (since they haven’t rlly actually had a long deep convo and mainly just run into each other for their missions).