#Caesar Cipher GF

[acerobot]

Take Two

Me(Last post about this(: Talks about how Ford is aware of this false reality cause he literally got a metal implant in his head

Also Me(This post about this): Nah this is a memory alter/erasure situation cause it's more fun to play around with

So yeah! Send thoughts and prayers for a heavily mind-altered Ford I guess

[creantzy]

Lose sight of yourself

My favs love terrorizing children 😍👍

(Characters:

Nikolai Gogol from "Bungou Stray Dogs" and

Bill Cipher from "Gravity Falls"

- Summary for those who may not know GF: Bill is a cunning dream demon that makes deals with people and is able to possess someone's body if they agree to it and shake his hand. And of course he loves to toy with people psychologically-)

The background in the first few slides is a visualization of the inside of Nikolai's mind

I got this idea when I thought about Mykola's idea of freedom vs Bill Cipher's, and how they basically have what the other wants xD Canon Nikolai wants to be free from his emotions, his humanity, while Bill Cipher wants to be free from the mindscape and be able to access our world, in other words: physical freedom.

Bill is literally not human, not bound to biology, and probably has the kind of "free will" Nikolai desires, while Nikolai on the other hand has the physical freedom Bill wants- even more so than other humans thanks to his ability.

But in this one-part-comic Mykola starts out believing that it's merely his body that is the trap, until Bill Cipher makes him realise that it's not how it works. Young Nikolai in this AU viewed the concepts of "body" and "mind" as separate units where one (the mind/ soul) represents his own self and the other (the body with all its sensations and emotions) is a "prison" that his self is trapped in. However, in reality BOTH components are part of his real self, equally, and one cannot exist without the other. Losing one of them would mean to lose oneself entirely.

And well- that's what Nikolai decides to try, ultimately ending up with his canon goal:

"You're fighting against God in order to lose sight of yourself."

I hope this makes sense, I am very deep in a BSD and Gravity Falls brainrot and whenever I fixate on two things at the same time this is what happens😭

(Btw, Bill possessing Nikolai is not him achieving his ultimate goal, it's merely a step. A vessel is still just a vessel, and not physical freedom in the way he wants it.

How exactly Nikolai's body could be useful to Bill's plans is up to interpretation since it's not the focus of this mini comic xD)

Caesar, 3

A1Z26

Bill's symbol substitution

[onehundredgar]

The fact that years and years ago I trained myself in to be fluent in both the trademark GF substitution cipher and -3 caesar cipher will now finally come in handy, and not just to scrawl encrypted notes onto the margins of my reports

[pe0pleall3rgy]

OOHOH do you know about the pacifica getting a job at greasy's diner thing i genuinely dont know whether or not its canon but i love that idea so much

and ford texting would be a nightmare, i imagine mabel uses keyspams a lot and he'd get so confused like "IS THIS A CIPHER? CAESAR VIGENERE WHAT IS THIS" he'd lose his shit

-gf anon

I DIDNT EVEN THINK ABOUT FORD NOT UNDERSTANDING KEYSMASHES THAT’S SO FUNNY.

Dipper picks up this habit from Mabel, and sends Ford a message with one once and dude spends hours trying to decode it. He somehow ends up with one word and clings to it like “WHAT IS MY NEPHEW TRYING TO TELL ME…”

The next time they video call he’s like “I’m so sorry, I couldn’t figure out what the code meant” and dipper’s so confused.

[the-madhouse-within]

Shipmas Day 1: Mistletoe

By The Madhouse Within

(we are hella nervous about this but plz enjoy)

Preinfo: Mabel is now a college student in her second year, the first year of college was stressful and disappointing both academically and socially, but this year has been better in grades. And all year long she’s been getting nightmares of dying alone. This Christmas, Mabel wants to bring home a boyfriend to show her family she can be successful in her endeavors and to disprove her horrid dreams. Meanwhile, Bill has been plotting escape and finally succeeds in exiting Stanley’s mind to hunt the twins down, and swiftly murders the two elder twins in his escape. He discovers a new form he has never taken before, human-looking but still powerfully dangerous with interdimensional magic. He figures from handwritten letters where to find Mabel first, so he starts his hunt, which leads to him walking around in the human world and carefully learning how to manage his powers along with his new form.  ✫彡✫彡✫彡✫彡✫彡 ✫彡✫彡✫彡✫彡✫彡 ✫彡✫彡✫彡✫彡✫彡 ✫彡✫彡✫彡

Bill stood by the windows in a smallish coffee shop trying to look like an average human totally not trying to stalk someone. It had been 9 days since he escaped Stanley’s mind and murdered the two elder twins to hunt the younger ones down. He was eager to get to them but was also very much fascinated by his new form. Escape had not been easy; it involved a great deal of manipulation to convince the old man to remember him clearly enough for him to slip up and set him free. Years of nightmares and whispering finally got him out when Stanley gave up and tried to get rid of Bill by summoning him out to kill him. Since Bill was in the man’s mind for so long, he learned quickly enough how fed off both twins and get rid of them. 

Suddenly, there she was, leaving the bathroom. Mabel walked out the bathroom, passing a archway lined with Mistletoe above, to go to order some coffee. She seemed a bit blue, not really smiling but not fully frowning either. Bill slyly passed through the crowd of tables and chairs to her and in a complicated loop order himself a drink and ‘accidentally’ bumped into Mabel, causing her to spill a bit of her own drink on both on them. 

“Ack- Oh no, I'm sososososo sorry!” she gasped while trying to pat away the stain on his coat with her sleeve. He sighed a bit and looked at her carefully before speaking.

“How about you grab a couple napkins, your sleeve is soaked and it’s cold out.”

“Will you be okay, I’m really sorry to get like all my coffee on you, I-” she says while grabbing napkins from a nearby empty table and patting her sleeve dry.

He cautiously stood closer and looked at her with the most sympathetic look he can muster. Mabel looked back at him and started to get a bit shy, unsure why she seems so nervous but starting to want to talk and not talk at the same time, key aspects of developing a crush. 

“It’s alright, but you seem a bit anxious. Do you at all mind if I sit with you and just talk a bit? I know it’s a bit sudden to sit with someone you never planned on sitting with, but I don’t mind in the slightest.” Bill said while resisting the urge to simply grab her and drag her away. He was starting to look more closely at her but not in an overly obvious way. It took a moment or so to decide, but she honestly felt like this was her lucky break at finding a boyfriend before the holidays ramp up. 

“Well… You seem kinda nice, so… Sure.” she admitted in a slightly quieter tone than when she was apologizing. Bill smiled and sat at the empty table she grabbed the napkins from, Mabel followed suit and sat across from him. They started off with bill asking her about what it is like to be living in that area, as he’d never been in that town before. She rambled and he let her, just letting her start getting a sense of trust with him. They talked for about twenty minutes before she remembered she ought to ask his name at some point. 

“Oh, I just realized, I never got your name. I’m Mabel, its been really nice to talk to you. What’s your name?” He paused a moment before looking her in the eyes and smirking a bit.

“Oh you know me from somewhere… You are my Shooting Star, after all.”

She is taken aback and realized who he was, but couldn’t just get up and run away, but it’s Bill Cipher, it’s dangerous to be near him actually existing. He calmly sips his tea and chuckles a bit. 

“How about a deal? Something I fairly understand about you, Shooting Star, is that you like guys; guess who now has the body of a relatively attractive guy. I will go out with you every day until Christmas and give you the best Christmas you could ask for, in exchange for letting me be in the human world in peace and not trying to hunt me down after. Sound fair enough?”

“Can I get a day to decide?” Mabel asked, looking around nervously. Bill wagged him index finger as he answered.

“Ah, ah, ahh; I need an answer sooner rather than later, so nope. You could either agree or risk having me getting what I want another way.” “Well… at least let me use the bathroom before I decide.” She said quietly. He nodded and let her go to the restroom, where she desperately paced around trying to come up with a solution. She felt like she’d been played, like trusting a stranger just a bit had caused this disaster of a deal to be made. She took about 10 Minutes to just stare at her reflection in the bathroom mirror, crying because she wasn't sure if her grunkles were safe, if anyone was safe, if SHE was safe. She cleaned her face and walked out the bathroom to see Bill standing in the archway waiting for her while examining the mistletoe above his head. 

“Is this what I have to be understood as ‘mistletoe’? I read up on Christmas traditions, seems a bit ridiculous to kiss under a poisonous plant, but I would like to attempt it. Wanna try?” 

Mabel blushed as he offered his hand to her, starting to feel her unease bubble. She had kissed guys before by now, she’d even dated guys long enough to understand how real adult dating worked, but this felt more endearing, which worried her because Bill Cipher is anything BUT endearing. But something in her told her to take this chance, maybe even somehow rehabilitate him of his evil ways… She took his hand and looked him in the eyes.

“Fine, but nothing too weird or pushy.” She said as she stepped next to him under the archway. Bill placed his other hand on her cheek and bent down forward to kiss her. As soon as their lips touches, they both shivered and felt weightless for just the smallest moment before snapping back into reality and pulling back from each other. They looked at each other in wonder before Bill looked away with shy demeanor. 

“...I’ll give you a day to decide. Meet me at the park by the plaza with the big shiny metal thingy at noon. Try not to keep me waiting.” 

She nodded and, just like that, he was gone. Walked out the door with a bit of a small smile on his face. Leaving her to stare longing at the exit.

[praisetheaxolotl]

as someone with a gf oc named caesar who was originally a spawn of bill. and as a sucker for bill having a dead brother.. I'm VERY intrigued with this one of yours (⁠ ⁠˶⁠ ⁠❛⁠ ▽ ⁠❛⁠ ⁠˶⁠ ⁠)

Aw, thank you!! Some more Caesar Facts for the adoring public:

He's more reserved and anxious than his brother, but sees Bill's antics as mostly harmless- he's more worried about Bill himself than the people around them.

They're fraternal twins- after Bill's surgery, they can pass as identical, but they're fraternal.

One day, he was mistaken as an errand boy by a liquor shop, and given a bottle of wine. This starts a trend of him pretending to be an errand boy to get his hands on wine, and he develops alcoholism just like Bill, but with wine instead of hard liquor.

Most people presume Caesar as being the more "normal" one to Bill's weirdness, but as established with the wine, Caesar is just as capable of being dishonest and unhealthy- just without the world-ending powers.

Their nicknames for each other were "Bee" and "Cee."

Twins run in their family; their biological mother was a twin. A mental health phenomena also runs in their family: both twins will have mental health issues, but one twin will always have a more severe iteration of them, being more outwardly destructive (both self-destructive and destructive in general.) The other twin will be more able to "pass as neurotypical" as it were, but the same mental health issues still exist, namely intense boredom listlessness, addictive tendencies, anxiety, paranoia, and suicidal tendencies. Not every Cipher will have all of them, and in the case of twins, the better-off twin wont just be a more subdued version of the worse-off twin. Luckily for Caesar, he was the twin that can "pass as normal."

Unluckily for Caesar, he's quite anxious and paranoid, coming off as overbearing to the more uncaring and free-spirited Bill.

He supports Bill's breaking of their home dimension's unjust laws in a moral sense, but he's intensely paranoid over getting caught- which, to be fair, Bill did get caught with his son, Chauncey, and it did have horrific consequences, both judicially and for Bill's overall mental health.

(Seeing your son get shot in front of you can drive a man to suicide in the best of conditions, and the Ciphers are not in the best of conditions.)

Bill tends to keep secrets from him- in the fic, there was going to be a segment where people eyed Caesar oddly whenever he was out. He didn't understand why. It was because his twin brother, unbeknownst to him, was in... adult entertainment for a year or so. Specifically the Flatland version of disabled porn/devotees. Bill got the least bad treatment; the other actors lived there and couldn't leave. It was not a fun time for anyone, and that arc marks one of the few times Bill used his powers.

I also had a post-series, human-body thing going on with the Ciphers, and a cute thing is that Caesar is a maximalist to the extreme. His room is covered with trinkets and books and blankets, as a sort of "organized chaos."

Also I'm just adding this for my entertainment: The Ciphers as I write them got expy-fied into original human characters that are the main characters of a story-based podcast! There's only a few episodes out and it's been on hiatus for years, but it's still in development, just.... slowly. Very slowly. People who've listened to the existing episodes say that the series is funny- it's just that some of my lines sound not very convincing because I still lived with my parents and had to keep the volume down, haha. I also think my voice sounds dopey but nobody else seems to agree. A lot of the L'appel du Vide concepts were gonna appear in the podcast. So that's just a fun fact!

[transmorolians]

0100110000100000011010110110010001111001011010000010000001100101011010000110100001110001001000000111011101101011011011000111000101101110011011000111000101101010001000000110010000100000011011110111001001110111001000000110010001100101011100100111100001110111001000000101011001110011011001000111000001110111011100100111000100100111011101100010000001101011011011000110011101100111011010000111000100100000011101100111001001110001011010100010000001101111011000100111010101101100011001100111011000100000011001000111000101100111001000000111011001111000011001100110101100100000011010010111001001110101001000000110010000100000011001100111001001111000011100110110111101101000001000000110011101100100011000100111011000100000011100010111001001111010001011000010000001100101011010000110011001100100011110000111011001101000001000000100110000100000011001000110111101110110011100100010000001101111011100100111100101101000001000000110011101101000011001100111001001100111011011000111000101101010001000000111000001101000011001000111000101101100011100010110101001110110001000000110010001110001011001110010000001110110011101110111100001101001011010010010000000101000011011100110100001100010011101100111000001100100011101100110101100101001

woo, okay!!!!!

ms detective general moderator phoebe "bee" "phoelyn" "fabulous"/"inspired" loving care susie patrya haltmann zan partizanne, you didn't have to go that hard but i'm glad you came in my time of need. 'preciate it, sherlock i just knew you couldn’t resist the chance

so, binary code, and caesar cipher shifted thrice forward. poggers! ...you don't mind if i also write my response in secret code, do you >:)

"i have been thinking a lot about spamton's hidden song lyrics and such for a couple days now, because i also love decoding meanings and stuff (keysmash)"

kbobxk, kbobxk!

gf qf ovkab dxafbk gxkkl gxjxmolzbpp gxjxrafl zljrkpx, fvx gxaxp gxjxobxa srk gxkkl kbobxk gxjfkqbomobqxqflkp hxpf gxjxefaabk gxjxivofzp, gf gxjxhfkax... gxjxjfiaiv gxjxkklvba??? ovkab clu'ox gxaxp gxkkl gxjxdfsbk sbx gxjlccfzfxi ivofzp.

i could live without them but i don't want jello in my dinner and dessert. like, spamton, sir, what in dante's seven hells are you saying? Spamton, sir, what in tarnation are you talking about?

anyways, thank you very much for sending me good words in funny puzzle format! ...not that i need to specify that these words are good, considering every word you say is good, but! <3

[anistarrose]

To See The Unseen - Chapter 1 (Gravity Falls)

Summary: A tale of old money, occult artifacts, and a man willing to try anything for a chance to see his brother again.

Warnings: see note below

AO3

A spooky mystery for Halloween! This first chapter is set during the night in which Into the Bunker happens, but as you’ll see, things are going to start to diverge from canon pretty quickly. I'm expecting this to end up as 4 chapters, but that's not set in stone.

This fic gets a little creepy at points, but if you were alright with everything that happened in the GF canon, there shouldn’t be any triggering stuff. But just in case, there is a warning for dq rxw ri ergb hashulhqfh (Caesar ciphered because of spoilers for the end of the first chapter).

***

The twins had left him a note saying they were out camping with Wendy and Soos, and while Stan had to admit he was a little worried, he forced himself to set those fears aside. With all the possible campsites in Gravity Falls, there was no way he was finding those kids even if he wanted to drag them back inside to safety, anyways. He’d just have to trust Dipper’s promise from yesterday that he wouldn’t go looking for any more trouble.

And besides, it was one of those rare nights on which he could be absolutely sure that no one would catch him sneaking down to the portal, and it would be a waste not to make the most of it. He spent the first half-hour or so of the evening lugging heavy toolboxes and clanking pipes down the steps and loading them into the elevator, and as the sun began to set, he retired to his desk in the basement to leaf through the two new Journals — or rather, Journal 2 and his photocopies of Journal 3.

He’d skimmed them already, and figured out just about everything he needed to know about the portal’s actual operation, but he’d skipped past most of the details of what Ford had actually gotten up to over the years. Unlike Journal 1, which he’d read and reread until his head ached and his eyes stung, desperate not just for clues but also for even the vaguest semblance of his brother’s companionship…

He started with Journal 3 but then quickly switched to Journal 2, because Gideon had made fewer notes and doodles in the margins than Dipper and Mabel had, and while the kids were admittedly good artists, it hurt to see them commenting on Ford’s research completely unaware they were talking about their own uncle. Journal 2 also had fewer codes — apparently Ford hadn’t been too worried about anyone reading his descriptions of various cursed artifacts, even though by his own account most of those artifacts were so dangerous that he’d needed to get rid of them by burying them in the woods.

One particular item caught Stan’s eye, though:

Scrying Eye Compact

This compact mirror got me in a heap of trouble, and though it holds incredible potential for the advancement of my research, even I have to admit that it’s too unsafe and unpredictable to keep around. Had my Muse not given me a helping hand, I almost certainly wouldn’t even be here to write this warning!

I buried it back where I found it, beneath the southernmost stall in the Northwests’ unused stables behind their mansion. I don’t even remember the reason I had for snooping around a place like that in the first place, so hopefully no one will dig it up again.

But even now, I have to admit that the power to spy on anyone, anywhere in the world, is incredibly tempting…

Stan’s breath hitched. If he could spy on anyone, anywhere with the mirror… could he see outside of the known world, too? Could he see if Ford was okay?

He flicked a few switches on the portal control panel, and a progress bar popped up on the display. It would be calibrating for at least another week, maybe even more.

He couldn’t wait that long. Not with a chance to see his brother again right within reach.

Not daring to take the Journal out of the basement, he jotted down the mirror’s location on a scrap of paper and tucked it into his pocket. Upon reaching the first floor again, he threw on a dark jacket, slacks, and a pair of boots, then stepped out into the woods through the Shack’s back door, flashlight in hand as clouds drifted in front of the nearly full moon.

***

Though Nathaniel Northwest’s riding accident was tragic and untimely, he was survived by a daughter, Felicity Northwest, and a son, Eli Northwest, the latter of which went on to establish Pioneer Day in his late father’s honor…

“Ugh.” Pacifica slammed her head into her desk. “I can’t believe there’s still over a century of this stuff left to read…”

Normally, she enjoyed the days her parents were out of town, since the rules were always significantly relaxed when they weren’t around, but this time, they’d left her with homework.

“I won’t need to know Victoria Northwest’s second favorite color to handle the family fortune responsibly! I won’t need to know the specific species of woodpecker that Reginald Northwest got disowned for trying to marry! There are so many better uses of my time than this!”

She flung open her window and stuck out her head, ready to scream her frustrations out to the empty nighttime void, but a flicker of motion near the bottom of the hill caught her eye.

From inside the abandoned stable, a thin beam of light swept past the window once, then twice. It disappeared after that, but Pacifica swore that she could see a faint glow still coming from inside, as if the light was pointing in a different direction, but still on.

“It had better not be that hillbilly making a nest again,” she muttered, but she’d already made up her mind about going to investigate. If she got caught sneaking out and her parents gave her grief over it when they got back, she could always say she thought someone was planning to rob them — they were always paranoid about break-ins, on account of living essentially next door to Stan Pines. Hillbilly or not, the light in the stable was still a mystery to solve, and she’d take that over homework any day.

Maybe those Pines twins were rubbing off on her, loath as she was to admit it.

***

In all the rush, Stan had forgotten to bring anything to dig with, but as luck would have it there was a rusty shovel leaning against the wall in one corner of the mostly-empty stable. As he brushed the cobwebs off it, he wondered if it had once been Ford’s.

Unlike the slightly muddy ground outside, the soil on the stable floor was dry and firmly packed, and Stan quickly realized he was going to have to set his flashlight down and dig with both hands on the shovel. The whole place was so musty it was almost suffocating, with a faint metallic tang in the air.

It smells like old money, Stan thought to himself with a scowl. Gotta admit, Ford was in the right for snooping on these snobs. Only the Northwests, with money coming out of their asses, would abandon a perfectly good stable without even selling it or renting it out to anyone else once they were done with it.

Beneath his shovel, something clinked, and he froze, afraid he’d broken the very artifact he’d been searching for. But after brushing away the last of the dirt with his hands, he felt a cold, smooth, intact object beneath his fingertips, and he fumbled for the flashlight as he lifted his discovery out of the hole.

The closed compact mirror looked exactly how the Journal had depicted it, though Ford’s sketch hadn’t captured its colors. It was entirely silver except for two golden accents — first, the hinge connecting its two halves, and second, the long and skinny oval that bisected the top half’s circle. The silver was in need of polishing, but the golden slit gleamed beneath Stan’s flashlight as though it had never been buried beneath several pounds of soil and horse manure at all.

Looks almost like an eye with a slit pupil, Stan thought to himself, ignoring the chill that ran up his spine. Yeesh, it’s drafty in here, isn’t it? Maybe that’s why no one uses the place any more.

Poised to flip open the compact, he hesitated as an owl hooted in the distance.

He hadn’t been that careful about avoiding detection here, had he? He’d been so impatient, so desperate to confirm that Ford was alive — but he’d be no good to his brother if he went and got himself arrested now.

So he set off back through the woods, shutting the stable door behind him and grimacing at the sound of his boots squelching in the mud. For one moment, he froze, sure that he’d heard the whinny of a horse from somewhere behind him, but the noise — if it had even been real in the first place — was quickly drowned out by the sound of chirping crickets, and Stan figured that even if there was a security guard or ghost horse or whatever chasing him down, they wouldn’t be able to hear his footsteps if he couldn’t hear theirs.

Of course, leaving the scene of the crime was one thing, but he was far too nervous to wait until he got all the way back to the Shack to give the mirror a better look. He settled down under a tall birch tree, on a patch of earth that seemed drier than most, and crossed his legs as he pulled out the mirror. It still seemed cold even after having been in his pocket for several minutes, and Stan couldn’t help but harken back to Ford’s warning in the journal…

As he stared up towards the night sky, he could’ve sworn that from its position just above the treetops, the moon gave him an encouraging wink.

He opened the compact, and the chill spread from his fingertips up his arms.

Inside, only one of its two sides had a mirror. The other featured a circular portrait of a familiar bearded man, whose face Stan couldn’t place, standing in front of a grove of birches. Most of the picture was in either yellow or sepia tones, but the man’s dark red eyes seemed to flicker as they stared daggers at Stanley.

The mirror itself was even stranger, reflecting everything in grayscale except for Stan’s own face, which was a transparent, electric blue. But strangest of all was the way it called to him, and he just knew that if he let it pull him where it wanted, he’d be able to see anything he wanted to see, go anywhere he wanted to go.

From a distance, an owl let out a screech, but it hardly registered to Stan.

I’m ready to see my brother again, he thought, and the whole world melted into a monochrome blur.

He saw a pitch-black plume of smoke rise out of the portrait, red eyes gleaming with delight as an incomprehensible smile spread across its nonexistent face.

“Good on you, stranger!” it told Stan with a deep chuckle. “I was starting to doubt that you had the nerve to open it! Oh, thirty-two long years later, and I’ve returned once more to walk the earth…”

With a dark, smoky tendril of a hand, it grabbed Stan by the throat. “Hope you enjoy your stay in the beast’s mirror! I know I didn’t enjoy mine!”

On reflex, Stan aimed a punch as best as he could from his restrained state, but before his fist made contact, the entity disappeared in a flash of light. Stan was left all alone, floating in the air and staring at his hands —

His blue, transparent hands.

Something beneath him clattered to the ground, and he looked down to see the compact, having slipped out of the grasp of his own unconscious body. He saw his own face staring at him with a blank expression, completely devoid of color like the surrounding forest except for in his two half-closed eyes, which were glowing blue.

With a spectral arm, he reached towards his physical form, but it passed right through his own head.

The mirror had trapped him outside of his body.

***

Pacifica slipped past the butler with ease and made her way to the current site of the Northwest Stables, where she saddled and mounted Angel, her roan pony. There were other horses who would be faster, but Angel would be quieter, not to mention closer to the ground to facilitate searching for clues. (And to tell the truth, Pacifica trusted Angel the most — she was one of the older residents and more mellow personalities at the stables, unlike some of the younger mares who liked to get frisky.)

The two of them cut across the unused racetrack as they headed for the abandoned stables, Pacifica holding the reins in one hand and an old-fashioned lantern from the family heirlooms collection in the other. It was chilly for a July night, and with the wind blowing in her face, she was grateful she’d chosen to put on gloves and a jacket.

With a whinny, Angel came to a halt a few yards further away from the stables than Pacifica would’ve liked her to, and balked at all attempts to guide her closer. So with a sigh, Pacifica slid out of the saddle and approached the door on foot. It opened with far less resistance than she’d been expecting.

She held her lantern protectively in front of her chest, bracing herself for someone to leap out at her from the shadows within, but the stable stayed dead silent. Even as spooked and anxious as she felt, nothing inside looked alive, and the only motion she spotted came from the flickering orange flame of her own lantern.

The building had been out of use since long before she was born, so at first she wasn’t sure which details might be out of place — but as she made her way down the hallway and laid eyes upon the last stall, right next to the window she’d glimpsed the light through, her uncertainty immediately evaporated. There were no cobwebs covering the doorway, unlike every other stall she’d passed, and a hole had been messily dug in the ground, with the culprit’s shovel still stuck in the dirt and standing straight up just a foot or two away.

“Angel, we’ve been robbed,” Pacifica announced, bursting out of the stable and immediately mounting her pony again. “I don’t know what they stole or why it was even here in the first place, but if they think they’re going to get away with this, then they’re —”

As she guided Angel in a broad circle around the stable, a set of tracks in the mud caught her eye. In the lantern’s imperfect light, she almost mistook the footprints for her own, but at second glance, they were far too big, and led away from Northwest Mansion.

“Then away from the mansion we shall follow them,” Pacifica declared with a smile. “Angel, giddyup!”

I don’t know what’ll be better — the looks on the twins’ faces when I prove they’re not the only detectives in town, or the looks on Mom and Dad’s faces when I tell them that I never would’ve caught this robber if I’d been doing all that worthless homework instead…

They only followed the tracks for about a minute before Angel skidded to a halt, whinnying and shaking her head.

“Hey, what’s the matter? Did something — gah! Is that a corpse?!”

From his position above his body, Stan whirled around. “Hey! Northwest kid? A little help here?”

He began to float towards her, but Pacifica dismounted and walked right through him, pinching her nose. Unlike everything else surrounding Stan, Pacifica in her purple jacket and her lantern with its flickering orange flame were patches of color in a world of gray, but that didn’t seem to mean Stan could interact with them any more than he could interact with his own body.

“Wait… Mr. Pines?” Pacifica picked up a stick with a gloved hand and gingerly poked Stan’s unconscious body with it, watching as its chest slowly rose and fell. “And he’s still breathing and everything. Guess he just decided to take a nap in the woods on the off chance he’d scare someone who thought he was dead, huh?”

“C’mon, Pacifica!” Stan pleaded. He waved at her frantically, and for a split second, her lantern’s flame lit up blue as his hand passed through it, but Pacifica was preoccupied. “Please tell me you can hear me! I… I just need someone to get a message to the kids…”

Pacifica scooped the compact mirror off the ground, brushing the dirt away as she held it up alongside her lantern for comparison.

“Similar craftsmanship,” she remarked. “Guess he was trying to rob us after all, wasn’t he?”

“It’s not like you were using it!” Stan replied automatically, but once again, Pacifica didn’t seem to hear. “My body’s eyes are glowing blue, for crying out loud! You’re telling me you can’t see that either?”

Pacifica pocketed the mirror and mounted her pony once again, shivering slightly.

“Let’s get out of here, Angel. It feels like everything in this forest has been giving me the creeps tonight.”

***

Zkdw kdsshqv zkhq rqh’v Pxvh jurzv wluhg?

Zkhq frqvwdqw txhvwlrqv gudz wkhlu luh?

Thanks for reading, reblogs/comments are appreciated as always — especially predictions! I’ve had a lot of fun putting together this plot, and I’m very excited to see if anyone picks up on certain pieces of foreshadowing!

[martiancandybars]

Hi there, let me introduce myself-

My name is Mars, I'm 19, and I'm a big huge lesbian nerd who loves drawing cute girls who love each other (',': I've been with my gf for 5 years, our anniv is literally the day before Valentines because we were too excited and eager to wait, and we're such huge dorks we told each other through Caesar cipher (',': my girlfriends name is Kay, and may occasionally post here, of which she'll tag it appropriately!! Please, please feel free to just message me to say hi, send me an ask, I'm very open and also here for anyone who needs to just talk. I'll always lend an hear or give the best advice I can! Also PLEASE GIVE ME CUTE YURI ANIME AND MANGA RECS!!!

[sovonight]

alright i’ve gone through the rest of blacklight journal 3 (and took some blurry pics which i’ve uploaded here! somewhat incomplete, but i was mainly going for the invisible ink content anyway. the ink has a hard time glowing when there’s black ink behind it-- it looks clear in person, i promise!)

and now my opinions,

reading through the whole book again: GOD I LOVE FORD SO MUCH

tho ford’s handwriting is as much of a pain to read as i remember. it’s only slightly less painful because i’ve read the journal before and know what to expect. tbh the kids’ entries were a breath of fresh air

some of the journal entries have been extended/embellished in non-invisible content, right? fancier paper can’t be the only thing that made the journal thicker, and there’s definitely stuff i don’t remember reading from the regular journal

yo ford brings up social interaction up a lot but like, at least he had college friends, plural

“This guy should spend less time reaping and more time at the gym!” i still can’t get over ford’s transition from scrawny nerd to buff nerd. who woulda thought.

it was nice to have the caesar/atbash/a1z26 ciphers written out! it holds little practical use, but i just think the tiny letters look cute

ford’s silly and i love him

“The thought that Earth is being used for extraterrestrial advertisement depresses me deeply” -- you and me both, bud. finally an opinion of ford’s pertaining to aliens that i can agree with

canon tarot card assignments! and some of them even line up with these

ford could possibly have been coming up with a catchy nickname for weirdmageddon for 30 whole years, and weirdmageddon is what he decided on. after 30 possible years of deliberation.

“I also tried to choose which theoretical physics books would be most fun to spend 50 years rereading, but they’re all so great I couldn’t decide!“ NERD

i sat there for a good 2 seconds until i decided that rather than the usual cipher, it must be a word scramble. then it made sense

“absolutely, unequivocally not” lollll

i want to see what ford was like when he was compiling journal 2. also, what on earth possessed him to leave his most dangerous journal at an elementary school? come on, man!

that lil frowny face

i trust that retina damage statement bc my eyes hurt from constantly flipping the lights on and off while trying to read ford’s passages

all post-finale fanfiction where ford does NOT eventually get bionic eyes is now non-canon-compliant

thank goodness, ford went straight for the newspapers. at least i got 1 headcanon right

god, ford, why would it be whales? it’d be octopuses! octopuses are where it’s at

“Air is great. Really can’t overemphasize how great air is“ god i love him

"Check out the Eurythmics’ latest chart-topper!” 1) oh thank goodness, now i know i could listen to his music, 2) finally someone else who uses s’ rather than s’s, 3) prepare for a world of disappointment my man because literally none of the things you’ve been listing is happening

i assumed that because i’d already decoded everything in the regular journal, i’d have decoded most of what’s in the blacklight version, so i mostly ignored the cryptograms this time around. if i’m wrong, though, that leaves a treat for future me!

a whole initiation ceremony and everything! ford knows what’s up

but honestly though, i decoded that last sentence at the end and tossed the blacklight onto my bed w a sound, smiling-- it’s official-feeling, you know? what a nice little addition. makes the silliness i feel in doing it feel unfounded

gf just brings this feeling of childhood & adventure & possibility that i haven’t rly had since like, elementary and middle school. and not just that, it makes me feel like there’s more out there and that feeling like there’s more isn’t...silly. it brought the magic back, u guys. i might cry.

again, i wish i’d had gravity falls as a kid, but i guess i’m close enough. and at least with this timing i get to drop $150 on a copy of my favorite character’s research journal! i needed a job to make this purchase

also, i saw the bit of discontentment around the journal numbers that went out (you know, whatever # out of 10000 and all that) and though i kind of did hope for lower digits since i ordered practically on the day it went up, the number i did get is pretty nice! sixes and ones, plus it’s reversible. i would’ve found something to like in any number i got, really. trying to exercise my optimism more

and using post-it notes to stick the photos/inserts back on is working out pretty well! thanks for the suggestion. they come off if i’m not careful enough when turning the page, but i’d rather they come off than stick forever haha. i wonder how they got the photos on so neatly in the first place? what a small margin for error

and there it is, back in its cozy packaging, ready to be buried in the forest somewhere!

ive appreciated the good times but it’s too expensive for me to regularly handle-- i’ll damage my regular copy of journal 3, thanks!

[thesnadger]

hi!! sorry to bother, but i'm new to the gf fandom (got into it after the show ended) and im so lost on how to learn the ciphers. do you know of any guides or helpful posts i can use to figure them out? i want to be able to have the thrill of deciphering the journal 3 codes on my own like everyone else got to do with the show. love your blog!!

No bother at all! There’s plenty of codebreaking resources for Gravity Falls, from ones that will basically do everything for you to ones that’ll just give you little hints.

Journal 3 has a few different ciphers, but nearly all of them fall into one of three categories:

Caesar Ciphers: Also known as “shift ciphers” because the letters of the alphabet are “shifted.” The clue for the Caesar cipher used in most Gravity Falls related stuff is “three letters back.”

Symbol Substitution Ciphers: There’s three of these in Journal 3, where each letter of the alphabet is replaced with a weird symbol. There are guides to solving these ciphers hidden throughout various pieces of Gravity Falls content. A guide to cracking Ford’s first cipher can be found on a page of the journal that is seen in the TV show. A guide to cracking his second cipher can be found in Journal 3 itself. A guide to cracking Bill’s cipher can be found in Dipper and Mabel’s Guide To Mystery And Nonstop Fun.

If you want to brute force your way through them without using the guides, the wikipedia article on Frequency Analysis is a good place to start. Also look out for words that are one letter long--these are almost always “I” or “A.”

Vigenere Ciphers: These are made and decoded using a vigenere square. A keyword is used to encode and decode them. Vigenere ciphers are notoriously difficult to figure out without the key, because the letter substitution keeps changing. In the television show, the key was always hidden in the background somewhere. There is one Vigenere cipher in the standard journal and two more in the blacklight edition. In all three cases, the key is found on the same page as the cipher and should be fairly easy to guess.

The Mystery Of Gravity Falls as a very handy decoder/encoder. It allows you to type plaintext or ciphertext in and run it through the “three letters back” cipher, atbash, binary, vigenere ciphers, polybus squares, a number substitution cipher, basically all the codes that Gravity Falls has used that don’t involve symbols. 

And if you get frustrated, the Gravity Falls wiki has a list of all the cryptograms and almost all the hidden messages.

Happy cracking!

[acerobot]

Hiiiiiiiiii I’m back LMAO

I’ve been cooking stuff up for fankid content which means I am once again asking for your financial support if you have canon designs for Caesar and Dora yet

If you do HAND EM OVER

If not continue going about ur day LMAO

I'm very happy to hear that!! Your artwork across my dash always brightens my day! Your artwork is hella good, and I love your silly goobers of ocs you have.

I had to whip up Caesar's real fast, so he might look a bit strange? Unsure, idk. He was rushed though. And Bella's was drawn like over a month ago so could be better but eh lol

I can't wait to see what you do!! And obviously expect some art of your guys in return

[acerobot]

Sorry for the inactivity, I got a short comic idea Im working on(Got like twoish pages left), but I'm already a slow drawer and I got.. distracted. AKA a friend(@hutchesonian )and I discovered a website where you could draw together and its been chaos.

Featuring:

Baby Bill, his parents, and some joke 3D glasses siblings. - Dad(Parent on the right) was drawn by Hutchensonian

Among Us

Worms(Non-Sitcom AU of the kids..Its an explanation and a half lol) - All of these worms are drawn by Hutchensonian

Bathtime Bill(Without Exoskeleton) - Drawn by Hutchensonian

Older, Non-Sitcom AU, Dorabella

Sitcom AU We Threw Up meme - Bill at the door is drawn by Hutchensonian

Hope yall enjoy the silly doodles!

[acerobot]

OP

OP OP OP

Caesar and Dora exist outside of the sitcom AU right

If so when were they born

I need to add them to my ever-growing army of fankids that are friends and have interdimensional playdates

But I need to know how old they would be

Yup! Though that was very much a decision made after the au creation. I just enjoyed them too much to isolate them there.

I don't have everything ironed out, vibes are easier to figure out than the lore behind said vibes unfortunately, but they were definitely born after weirdmageddon, so much closer in age to your fankids that were had after Bill's theraprism arc(I am sorry, I'm bad with names and can't recall them rn). However, they were made Much Earlier than that, think like during Ford's obsession over Bill era before the portal incident. Just didn't come to fully be for the longest time due to a bunch of circumstances. I could try and explain more, but that's not what your question's about and I'm not fully sure on a bunch of details myself lol.

Typing this right before I answer, cause just realized I never gave you their actual ages?? Just when they were born lol. My bad. Well, I do plan on drawing their current ages as around 8-9ish for Dorabella and 13-14ish for Caesar.

Once I flesh out their regular timeline designs, Id love to draw them with yours if you wouldn't mind! I love your guys a lot, they're super nice.