#timetrapped AU

[korvidking]

save a horse ride a cowboy

[aceofstars16]

The Epilogue is up! After over a month (or five years, if you are counting the first seven chapters lol), this story is finally finished!

Thanks to everyone who read, reblogged, and liked it!

The whole story can be read on AO3 or you can read the epilogue below:

Epilogue

June 20th

This had officially been the longest day of my life. I already wrote about what happened in the past (Man I was really freaking out about time paradoxes, huh? Good thing there is such thing as a Time Wish!) but I thought I should fill you in on what happened after me and Mabel got back for the second time.

First, much to my surprise, the Mystery Fair was still going on! But it was different than the one Stan had put on before our time travel adventure. The biggest difference was that there were way more scientific booths around. You could actually learn things! But not all of it was different. Stan still had his dunk tank, and it was still rigged. Aside from that, most of the activities seemed a little safer (maybe the safety signs were actually real…but knowing Stan, they could still very well be fakes). I was pretty sure that the science and safety were Ford’s doings, and that was confirmed when we found our grunkles on the grounds.

What a reunion! They were so thrilled to see us that Stan practically tackled us in a hug.  What had only been a few minutes for us was thirty years for them! But true to their word, they had plenty to tell us, with more promised after we get some sleep (as if I’ll be able to sleep! Okay, Globnar did kind of wear me out, but my brain is still going a mile a minute.)  However, the pictures in the hallways of the two of them on a boat make me think a lot of their stories are going to involve sailing.

But the-

Okay, Mabel keeps begging me to let her write some. So I’ll pass it on to her for a minute.

Hi!  Mabel here! Dipper forget to mention the best thing! Or, one of the best. Seeing Grunkle Stan and Ford again (and getting the tightest hug ever from Stan) still makes me grin. BUT the other best thing happened when we first made it back to the fair. True to Dipper’s word, we started looking for Waddles. Now, with how different everything was, I wasn’t sure where to look for the pigs. And I was starting to wonder if they even had pigs at this fair. But then I saw him! Waddles was in a pen, just like before! And I won him again fair and square. Now I have my pig and both of my grunkles! It’s the best day ever! Thanks Dipper!

Okay, Dipper here again. Yes, Mabel got Waddles again, and I’m okay with it, even if it meant giving up my day with Wendy. Oh, right, I need to fill you in on Wendy in this new future! She’s still around, in fact, she still works for Stan! (And kind of Ford too. He told me that she’s helped him and Stan investigate anomalies a few times!) Ford said something about not having enough money to buy a boat. So Stan had the idea to turn the house into a tourist trap (count on Stan to have the same idea no matter what changes in the past). Of course, Ford wasn’t a huge fan. But they needed the money and Ford realized it would be a good way to educate the public about anomalies.

And so, the “new” Mystery Shack was born! It’s definitely more educational than before – which Mabel says is boring – but Stan still creates his fake attractions. There is even a game to play where you have to figure out what is real and what is fake. It’s a lot harder than it looks!

Soos is also working at the Shack as a handyman. Something about Fiddleford (who Ford told me was actually Old Man McGucket! Though he looks way different than he did before) focusing on his family and his own inventions and Ford not having time to fix the little annoyances around the house. Plus, I think Ford can tell how much Stan enjoys Soos’ company, even if he’d never admit it!

I still can’t help but wonder what had happened in the past to result in Stan running the original shack. But when I mentioned it to Ford, he simply stated that some mysteries are better left unsolved. And, seeing how happy everyone is…it’s hard to disagree.

So, I know who the author is. It’s a little strange, realizing that the biggest mystery of the summer is already over. But I have a feeling there are still plenty more adventures to be had this summer, all of which I will document here. I can’t wait to get started!

Signing off for now (because Stan just poked his head in to tell us to “Get to bed you knuckleheads, or I won’t tell you about the kraken I fought with my bare hands.”),

Dipper Pines

[oatmeal-stans-the-trash-rat]

My Gravity Falls AUs (So Far)

I caved, and so here's me yapping about my collection of AUs...except The Spoiler One.

Calming Seas AU

The basic premise is qpp Fiddlestan in college at BMU in the 70s because Stan didn't break his brother's project in this universe. Murder mystery thriller plotline with some queerplatonic realizations from Fiddlestan. Made multiple posts about this already. Main au I'm working on.

"The Spoiler One"

After the Calming Seas fic is finished, I'll reveal what this one is about. For now: it's OC-centric and kinda basic. I like drawing for it though, so there's art already (not that I've posted any yet). It has an actual name but um. Spoilers.

Starry Gods AU

Basic idea is this: Mabel accidentally gets transformed into a shape god like Bill. This is post-Bill's Death, so...not currently a shape god around Gravity Falls. The Pines family has to now figure out how to turn Mabel back. She's referred to as "Shooting Star" by most other people while in this form. Gravity Falls typical adventures ensue. Waddles is very confused.

The rest AUs below are all variations of basic Time Stuck AU concept

Standard TimeTrap AU

Time Stuck except the twins being stuck in time wasn't accidental! It's from a time trap leftover by Bill before he died as a backup plan. It's set pre-Portal Incident. Mabel ends up with Ford (who still gets possessed by Bill at times), and Dipper ends up with homeless Stan. Otherwise, the usual Time Stuck AU of the twins reuniting and finding a way back home because the Time Tape is broken. Usual family drama between the Stan Twins.

Papa Fiddle AU

Time Stuck except it's before Fiddleford stops being Ford's assistant. Mabel ends up with Ford & Fiddleford. Dipper ends up with homeless Stan. The twins are separated briefly; they reunite pretty early on. Set before Stan is supposed to go to Gravity Falls, but Dipper convinces him to go so he can get back home. Ford assumes Dipper is Stan's child upon meeting him. Because Stan is kinda emotionally unavailable & Ford is Bill-obsessed-and-possessed still, Fiddleford is the most stable person for the kids to be around. Thinking this is before Fiddleford goes obsessive with the memory gun, so he's pretty intact mentally. In this universe, he's freshly divorced and missing his son, Tate, a lot. Sees the kids and immediately gets attached to them, especially since he's literally a dad and they kinda remind him of Tate a little bit. Fiddleford is protective over the twins, and he's pretty good at taking care of them. Lots more with this one, but there's only so much I can write at once. Otherwise, standard Time Tape is broken & the twins need to get back to their own timeline.

Accidental Fatherhood AU

Time Stuck except both of the twins end up homeless Stan while he's on his way to Gravity Falls & he immediately attaches to them. He thinks they're a pair of homeless kids that got kicked out or something. Dipper is trans, and when that's revealed to Stan, he thinks that's why these kids were kicked out because this is the 80s. Gets really protective over them. Especially when it comes to Dipper and others asking why he's a little "feminine" compared to other boys his age. Makes it clear to Ford that if anything happens to his kids, Stan will not hesitate to protect by any means. He still loves his brother, he always will, but his kids come first. Ford thinks the twins are like Stan's biological kids upon first meeting them. Stan does not admit nor deny if that's true. Otherwise, standard Time Stuck AU with broken Time Tape, needing to get the twins back home, etc.

New Visions AU

Time Stuck except it's Wendy, Tate, and Mabel who get stuck in the past. They end up with homeless Stan who's living on the road because it puts them about 5 years before he's supposed to go to Gravity Falls. This happened because of an accident on a fishing day at the lake, and they were all together because of different connections to McGucket. Now, see, past!Stan sees a trio of homeless people on the side of the road that consists of a child and two young adults. What the heck is he supposed to do when they look so roughed-up? He assumes their homeless and/or run-aways. The trio convinces Stan to go to Gravity Falls way earlier than he's supposed to because it's "the way to get them home". This is during while Fiddleford is still Ford's assistant & Ford is still Bill-obsessed-and-possessed. Tate gets to meet a younger version of his dad before all the memory loss and mental decline, and he has a chat with him about not being there for his son (because in this universe, Fiddleford has been recently divorced and only talking to his child-age son through phone calls). Fiddleford explains how he fears he's already messed up with his kid and that there's no hope in trying to fix things at this point. Tate sees his dad in a whole new light. Past!Stan and Wendy bond over being raised by fathers who teach them how to be tough instead of giving them the comfort they needed as a kid. Wendy starts seeing Stan in a whole new light as she learns what his life has been like and why he's such a grump in the future. Mabel learns more about her Grunkle Stan, more about McGucket/Fiddleford, and more about how Ford & Stan are towards each other. She starts seeing both Stan and McGucket in a whole new light. Wendy & Mabel get closer to Tate as everything is going on. MEANWHILE: in the present, Stan, Ford, Soos, and Dipper are all trying to figure out a way to get the Time Stuck Trio back. One of Wendy's younger brothers even pays a visit at some point because he's wondering where his big sister is. The rest is the standard Time Stuck AU with a broken Time Tape, needing to get back home, etc.

[incorrectinfinity]

i apologize if this is not the correct blog to ask this, but could you tell me about choc'o'clock? i'm... inchrested 👀 i never really considered that ship but it seems very cute!

THIS IS THE RIGHT BLOG!

So I randomly came up with it while designing for a lil AU I have called Timetrap and I was like "mehhhhhh Bonbon designed em sureee"

And then my brother was like "what if they kissed" and my life changed forever. I haven't really thought about them recently but whenever it gets brought up I go yay! Yahoo! Woohooo! Yippee!

Most of my art of them isn't very good unfortunately because it's old but my canon is still pretty good and soul crushing so if you want any elaboration on that I will gladly give you it!

[donutpwns]

Journey to the Roots - Part 1

\o/ -- Part 2

So this was inspired by some fanart for this au by @illustratedacorns beep and @artsycrapfromsai boop. Go check out both of them, they’re both really great artists.

Her head was pounding; it felt like she’d drank a gallon of Mabel-juice with a Smile Dip chaser and was hitting the critical crashing stage. She groans, struggling to pull the collar of her sweater over her face and escape to Sweater Town until the feeling passed. Her stomach feels like it’s about to turn itself inside out. “Diiiiiipper, I’m dying!” the whine is out before she can even process the thought.

“No clue who Dipper is, kid, but if you’re going to die, could you do it somewhere else?” The voice is oddly familiar but most definitely not that of her brother.

Mabel’s eyes widened and she’s scrambling to get out of Sweater Town. “WHAT?!” her collar tugs down to only cover her mouth; she has to blink rapidly as she looks around where she’s at. She’s—wait, how did she get in the Stanley Mobile? And why was there so much more trash—ooh, new surprise tacos! She reaches to grab one only to have her wrist grabbed by a large hand. Oh. Right. The source of the voice. That was a thing. She traces up the arm, clad in a grimy red jacket that looked like a crime against heat as well as fashion, to the owner of both it and the voice. “WHAT?!” she screams again.

The circles under his eyes are much less pronounced with only the beginnings of crow’s feet at the corners, though they’re currently narrowed at her. His face is unshaven and unwashed; his hair is long and greasy and brown. It’s a little unnerving how much he resembles her dad. He drops her wrist at her second scream and lifts both hands in a telltale ‘no harm’ gesture.

“Easy, kid. You’re the one that broke into my car, if anyone should be screaming, it’s me.” He’s frowning at her before sighing. “Listen, if you’re trying to rob me, you picked the wrong target. I’m broke as they come.”

“Gr-Gr-Grunkle Stan?” her brain is spinning. Why was Grunkle Stan so young? It didn’t make sense. Something weird was going on; Dipper probably had the answer in the journal. No, wait, Grunkle Ford took the journal back. Oh, hey, Grunkle Ford would probably know what was going on.

Stan lifts a bushy brow at her; he’s got the look he gets whenever Dipper comes screaming about a new conspiracy theory. “No clue what a grunkle is, kid, nor how you know my name. But if this is a bit, it’s a weird one.” He reaches over her and opens the passenger side door. “If you work for someone that I owe money, tell them I ain’t gonna be paying up to a kid. Now scram.”

Mabel notices for the first time that the car doesn’t seem to be in Gravity Falls; it’s late at night and they’re parked in a sleazy looking alleyway between two large buildings. The air is icy cold when it hits her face. Gravity Falls doesn’t have any buildings this big. Ohh noooo. “Hot Belgian waffles…” she swears before grabbing the door and slamming it back shut and smashing the lock down. “Nope, nope! Not going out there, nope, hahahaha!” she turns back to Stan and jabs a finger towards him; he barely pulls back in time to avoid a good nose poking. “Younkle Stan! We have some weird stuff going down!”

“Youn—What are you on about?” he’s leaning back, back against the driver side door, twisted at the hips. “Kid, I don’t know you, so whatever you’re after—” he jumps when she scrambles to her knees in the passenger seat and leans super close to him.

This time he can’t escape the nose poke. “You! You’re Stanley Pines, you have a twin brother named Stanford and another brother named Grandpa Shermie—well, Grandpa isn’t part of his name but that’s what Dip Dop and me always called—NOT IMPORTANT!” she has to slam her hands on the middle console to de-distract herself. “POINT! You’re my great uncle but usually you’re all old and junk but now you’re young which, like, is not even close to the weirdest thing I’ve ever seen but it is definitely in the top fifteen, right after the time I found out my favorite boy band was made up of a bunch of clones grown by this real jerk who didn’t let them go outside but then I kinda did the same so—” a hand clamps over her mouth and she’s licking it on pure instinct.

Stan jerks his hand back at the same time she starts gagging; when was the last time he’d washed his hands?! “Holy shit, kid! Slow it down.” He starts wiping his hand on his jeans, which were about as filthy as his jacket. Grooooss. “Okay, okay, so you know more than most of the sharks I owe.” His eyes widen in a realization and it’s Mabel’s turn to jump back when suddenly he has a fist in her face, golden knuckles catching what little light the streetlights give. Wow could he put those on super-fast. “Did they send you to threaten my family? To let me know that you know who they are? Cause I don’t give a shit if they’re a bunch of assholes, nobody messes with my family! You hear that, you little punk?”

Her head’s spinning from so many swears, also the pounding headache that still hasn’t really gone away. Her eyes water before she can really process it because hello Grunkle Stan is threatening to hit her. She gives a loud sniff and mimics his hand gesture from a few minutes ago. “C-c’mon, Grunkle Stan. It’s—it’s me, Mabel! Your favorite great niece?” she pushes on her cheeks, trying to make her eyes as wide and cute as possible. “Don’t you remember me?”

Stan was doing his best to look unimpressed but she can see him cracking. After a moment, he gives a huff and lowers his fist. All the air seemed to deflate from him with the movement; she’s frowning as he slumps so far into the seat that his knees are pressed to the console. He groans, rubbing at his eyes with one hand. Mabel takes that as a good sign to relax. She shifts in her seat so she’s sitting cross-legged, taking the time to tug her sweater over her knees.

Well. This was awkward.

With a sigh of her own, paired with a pout, she reaches for the surprise taco she’d seen earlier. It’s practically grease-glued to the fast food bag it was in; when she finally peels the paper bag away, she sees a receipt similarly stuck to the taco wrapper. She doesn’t recognize the name of the restaurant listed at the top of the nearly translucent paper. Then her eyes fall on the date and she drops the taco entirely.

“81?! Is this taco right, Stan?!” she winces when Stan jumps at her shout, swearing even more at the way his knees banged into the steering wheel. Okay, so maybe she should stop yelling in an enclosed space with someone that didn’t seem to know her. Dipper may have been right about that. Not that she’d ever admit that. She was the Alpha Twin and therefore always right forever. But if this receipt was right, then that meant that Stan hadn’t forgotten her, this Stan hadn’t met her yet!

Stan was rubbing at his knees, frowning. “Of course it’s—how did you not know what year it is?” he’s reaching for her as if to feel her forehead before seeming to think better of it. “Are you, I dunno, sick, kid? I can give you a ride to a…hospital or something. I might have some quarters for you to call your parents?” his hand returns to rubbing at his eyes, “Shit, a kid breaks into your car and you offer her a ride. Going soft, Stanley…”

Mabel leans forward, checking the messy floorboards for a tape measure. She doesn’t remember seeing Blandin or messing with a time device. And wasn’t she with Dipper before…whatever happened? Huh. Now that she thought about it, she couldn’t remember exactly what she was doing before waking up curled up in the front seat of the Stan Mobile. She remembered breakfast with Stan and Dipper; she remembered dressing Waddles in the new sweater she’d made him. She remembered wanting to show Grunkle Ford the new finger puppets she’d made him: one for each of the Mystery family to try to get him to warm up to everyone else. Everything else is fuzzy and makes her head hurt to think about.

“Where are we? Like…are we in Oregon?” she’s hopeful; if she could get back to the Mystery Shack then maybe Grunkle Ford could figure out what was going on. Plus if Dipper was here too that’s where he’d go so that’s where she needed to look for him.

Stan gives a bark of a laugh, “Where—Okay, actually, never mind. I’m going to stop asking questions cause you’ll just scream and start talking nonsense again. Oregon? Nah, Arizona, kid.” His mouth twists for a moment, “…fuck it, one question. What’s in Oregon?”

“Home! Your home, and mine and Dipper’s for the summer. Though I think it’s technically Grunkle Ford’s house but, like, you’ve paid the bills for like thirty years—or you will after—WAIT!” her eyes go wide and she has to slam her hands on the console again. “This is before! Which means you and him haven’t! So maybe if we get there before there doesn’t have to be an after and we can fix everything right now!” she’s grinning, imagining what things will be like if her grunkles were the best friends they were supposed to be because twins are supposed to be the best of friends. Like her and Dipper, they were going to be together forever once she found him again. Yeah! “I need you to take me to Gravity Falls!”

“…did you say that’s where Ford is?” Stan’s face is softer, like when they went fishing with him or when Ford first stepped out of the portal. He shakes his head, the look lost with the gesture, “No. Listen, if you know anything about my family, then you know I’m the last person my brother wants to see.”

“But he’s in danger, Younkle Stan!” she bites her lower lip. When did Bill first start talking with Ford? “Aghhhh, Dipper would know when everything happened.” Her stomach was starting to twist again. Was Dipper okay? Maybe she’d been sent back alone. Oh, he had to be so worried about her. Him and the grunkles and Soos and Wendy. She has to rub at her nose as another loud sniff escapes her. It was hard to be optimistic when she was all alone. “We gotta get to Gravity Falls. We gotta!” she turns her eyes, cute set to full wattage, back to Stan and sticks out her bottom lip.

Stan stares at her for a long moment. He looks down at his lap then pulls down his visor, looking at a tiny map of the United States with most of the states crossed out. Arizona was already crossed out, huh, that was weird. But Oregon wasn’t, score. “…you say Ford’s in trouble? And going there will help you and him?”

Mabel nods so hard that her pounding head threatens to make her puke. “Yup! And my brother, Dipper! He’s my twin, like you and Grunkle Ford. And if I’m here then he’s gotta be here too cause, like, we never time travel without each other or go on adventures alone. So if I’m here he’s probably there cause that just makes sense. Or if he’s not, he will be cause that’s where I’m going so that’s where he’s gotta be going too. Right? Right!”

Stan’s mouth twists again and he drops his head back against his seat. “I really am going soft. Fuck it. Pretty sure there’s no warrants for me in Oregon. And if Ford is in trouble…” he shakes his head before giving Mabel a hard look. “I can’t believe I’m doing this, but fine. I’ll get you to Gravity Falls. But once we’re there and I’m sure Ford isn’t about to keel over, I’m bouncing. You got that, Mabel?”

Another bout of near-puke-inducing nodding. “Right! Thank you so much, Younkle Stan!” she can’t help climbing over the middle console to wrap her arms around his neck, nuzzling him with the force of the hug. “Eee, I get to go on a road trip with Stan! Dipper’s gonna be so jealous when we meet up.”

“Alright, alright, get off.” Stan pushes her back to the front seat, brows furrowed. “There’s no way we’re related.” He sighs before starting up the car. “Whatever. Let’s get this over with.”

-----------------

He’s freezing, cold down to his very bones, with a pounding in his skull. It feels like Bill has put his body through a ringer then locked him in a deep freeze. He groans and tries to push himself up, only to feel his hand go through something insanely cold and wet. His scream is high pitched as he scrambles up, blinking repeatedly to clear his vision. For a moment he thinks he’s gone blind as all he sees is white until he realizes that. Oh. Snow. There’s snow everywhere.

He was on the porch of the Mystery Shack and there was snow everywhere. No wonder he was so cold. He wipes his wet hand on his shorts, eyeing the outline of where he’d stuck his hand through. The snow had drifted nearly halfway up the door, haphazardly cleared like someone had kicked at the snow. Which sounds like something Stan would do; how long had Dipper been outside?

Sudden weather issues and memory issues? Geez, he hoped no one had gotten ahold of the memory gun; that was the last thing he needed. He was going to need to check with Grunkle Ford, see if he’d ever seen something like this before. Also, get something for his head. It was hurting bad enough to make him feel kinda sick, especially when coupled with how cold it was. Definitely not good weather for shorts and a T-shirt. He might have to finally give in and wear one of the sweaters Mabel had made for him.

Wrapping his arms around himself and rubbing at them, he stumbles his way to the front door. When he tries to open the door, however, he finds it locked. That’s…weird. Why would it be locked? Stan’s definition of home safety was a bat and his knuckledusters. Also why would they lock Dipper out? He rolls his eyes; Mabel must be playing a joke on him. “Real funny, Mabel. Yeah, let’s lock Dipper out. We’ll see whose laughing when I sneeze all over you.” He brings his fist down on the edge of the doorframe, “Hey! Let me in, Mabel! It’s cold!”

Instead of Mabel’s grinning face, he’s instead greeted with a crossbow in his face. Another high pitched scream and his sneaker slips on snow when he tries to jump back from the weapon. Cold bites into his butt and thighs; his stomach gives a lurch at the sudden drop. “Wh-wh-wh—”

“Who sent you?! How did you find this place?!” the holder of the crossbow yells at him, poking his head out of the doorway. His eyes are bloodshot, hair sticking out in all directions, and even from a distance Dipper can smell that he hasn’t showered in at least several days. He looks even more tired than Dipper remembers seeing him yesterday, the bags under his eyes deeper and darker than usual. But even with that, and the extreme scruff on his cheeks, he still looks younger.

Ford takes another step out the door and lines up the bolt with Dipper’s head, “I said: who sent you?!”

Dipper put his arms over his head, “Ahh! My name is Dipper Pines! I’m your great nephew, please don’t shoot me!” oh god, he was going to be killed by his grunkle. His idol of the summer was going to kill him with a crossbow. He was going to—wait, why hasn’t a painful but hopefully swift death came yet? He peaks his eyes open; Ford is giving him a suspect look, but the crossbow has been lowered just a bit. “Grunkle Ford?”

Ford scowls and lifts the crossbow again. “Show me your eyes! Your eyes! Before I put a bolt through that stupid hat!”

Eyes—oh! Oh, of course! Dipper pushes up to his feet, trying not to slip while doing so. He uses his hand to push his hair out of his eyes. “Look, see! Normal eyes! No yellow, no slitted pupils! I am not possessed by Bill!” that is apparently the wrong thing to say, as Ford’s eyes go wide and somehow even crazier.

“How do you know who Bill is?!” Ford takes a small step back inside. “This is a trick—a-a shape shifter or-or something. Trust no one, trust no one.”

Dipper lunged forward to try to keep up. “W-wait! I’m not a shape-shifter and I’m not working with Bill! I’m—well, I think I might be from the future, considering this isn’t exactly the Mystery Shack and—listen! I’m Shermie’s grandson!” he’s still shivering, but it’s easier to ignore the cold in favor of not getting locked out by his paranoid grunkle. “If you let me in, you can examine me however you need to prove I’m a normal human.”

Ford narrows his eyes at him for a moment before taking another step back and gesturing towards the inside of the house with the crossbow. He never stopped pointing it at Dipper’s head, but he’d take the victory of not being in the freezing cold.

Dipper was pretty sure he’d never seen the Mystery Shack so messy, bar maybe when Gideon destroyed it or when the zombies attacked. All the fake attractions and souvenirs were gone, replaced instead by piles and piles of books and loose papers. Dipper has to step over a pile of what looked like elongated bones, only bright purple. There’s also lots of drawings of triangles pinned to the walls, most with red Xs drawn across them or Ford’s paranoid mantra of ‘TRUST NO ONE’ written in dripping ink.

Okay, so he’d thought they’d been exaggerating how insane Ford was when they’d told him about the portal accident. This was…concerning. Even Dipper thought this was excessive. He didn’t really like seeing his great uncle like this. The number of times he’d imagined meeting Ford back in the days when he was writing the journals, he’d always pictured him as very similar to the Ford he knew. Excited in the same manic way that Dipper could get when there was a new mystery; fun and ready to play board games when not on an adventure. This wasn’t nearly as fun as he would’ve thought it would be.

Ford was peeking out the blinds even as he kept the crossbow pointed at Dipper. “Take a seat, kid. I have a lot of questions, as you can imagine.”

Dipper casts another look around the living room, eyeing the books that seem to take up every inch of the couch. There’s a stool in the corner, but there’s something that looks like half melted lime Jello on it and dripping down the sides. “Uhh, I’d prefer to stand?” despite the cold, Dipper can feel himself sweating under his collar. He wants to ask for a towel for the rapidly melting snow on his butt or a blanket to fight the still-present cold, but he’s honestly afraid to see what said items would look like given the state of the house and Ford himself.

“What?” Ford looks around, as if just noticing the mess that was his house. He seems to still have a small sense of decency as his cheeks turn a deeper red than just that from the cold and he points the crossbow towards the floor. “Oh, right. That’s—” he clears his throat and raises the weapon once more, “Never mind all that. You said you’re from the future?”

Dipper starts to nod furiously only to stop when it causes the pounding in his head to flare up. Ohhh, yeah, no. Can’t do that. Verbal confirmation then. “Yes! Or, at least, I’m pretty sure this the past. Well, relative to where I’m from, or when I’m from, heh.” He snorts at his own joke—Mabel would’ve loved that— before catching himself and straightening his posture. He mimics Ford’s throat clear, “Ahem, right. Yeah. My name’s Dipper, Dipper Pines. I’m from the year 2012.”

Ford’s frowning that deep frown he always got whenever Dipper first started asking him questions after he stepped through the portal. “There was the anomaly in the time readings a few years ago...my theory that time travel was possible, even though Fidds said…” His voice trails off into something too low for Dipper to hear before clearing his throat yet again. “Right. So, you’re my great nephew from 30 years in the future. Let’s say for the sake of argument that I believe that, given it is theoretically possible and you do bear a passing resemblance to Sherman. What are you doing here?”

Dipper hesitates, trying once more to push through the headache to remember what he’d been doing before waking up on the porch. Stan had made them Stancakes in the morning. Soos had showed him the new parts for version 2.0 of the rocket golf cart that they were going to work on come the weekend. He remembered wanting to show something to Ford and going to punch the code into the vending machine, but he can’t remember actually doing that. His stomach is twisting itself into knots as he tries to chase the memories that seem to be melting away like the snow on his shorts. Something had distracted him. What—

“Easy, kid.” A hand catches his shoulder, halting the swaying he hadn’t realized he’d been doing. Ford looks almost worried as Dipper tries to swallow down the nausea and dizziness that had suddenly taken over. “You’re white as a sheet, kid.”

Dipper shakes his head and takes a deep breath. What’s wrong with him? “I’m fine. I just can’t—I don’t remember how I got here.” McGucket hadn’t mentioned anything about physical side effects of the memory gun, just the affect it had on long-term memory retention. Why did he feel so sick trying to remember what had happened? He pats his pockets to make sure he didn’t have Blandin’s tape measurer again. Aside from some chewed up pens and a wadded up scrap of paper with ‘Wendy Pines’ written enough times to make his neck burn, he comes up empty. “I think I was talking with Mabel and—Mabel!”

He pushes past Ford, who lets out a very owl-like squawk as he nearly drops the crossbow, and rushes to the door. A blast of cold air hits him in the face—okay Outside was definitely colder than Inside— when he swings the door open, forcing him to squint as he scans the yard. How could he forget to check for Mabel? Oh god, if she was still unconscious in the snow…

The only tracks in the snow are from him and a kicked path that leads to a sign with big bold “STAY OUT” letters on it and barbwire on top of it. At the edge of the yard he can see what looks like rabbit tracks, but otherwise it’s all a blanket of untouched white. No other tracks and no Mabel-sized lumps. That’s both a relief and not. Dipper cups his hands around his mouth, “Mabel! Mabel, are you out there?!” his voice cracks on a yelp when a hand closes around his shoulder again, jerking him back into the house. He’s shoved back, nearly tripping over the pile of bones that seem to glow when his sneaker touches them. “Gah, Great Uncle Ford!”

Ford pulls the door closed and proceeds to lock a fairly frightening number of deadbolts. He’s got the manic look back on his face; his glare is enough to dry up Dipper’s indignation at being manhandled. “Calm down! Who the hell is Mabel?”

“Who—she’s Mabel!” he’s exasperated for a moment before, oh, right, past. It’s so weird to think of anyone not knowing who Mabel is at this point, what with the way that she seems to just be all the time. “She’s my sister; my twin. If I’m here, that means she’s probably here too. I’m pretty sure we were together before…before whatever happened.” He digs his fingers in his hair under his hat, still trying to fight past the headache and the nausea to remember what happened to his sister. “Ughhhh, why can’t I remember?! I had breakfast with her and Stan and then I wanted to talk to you about something but she was there and then—”

“Did you say Stan?” Ford’s voice cut through his own mania; he looks up at him to see a mix of anger and something soft warring on his uncle’s face. Apparently Ford has deemed him a non-threat as the crossbow has been hung up next to the door. “You know who Stan is?”

Dipper’s brow furrows before he remembers what Stan and Ford had told them. About their fight and the not seeing each other for ten years and then for thirty years because of the portal and the burn on Stan’s shoulder—Moses, Dipper had bugged Stan so much about that he was the worst— and the way the two glared at each other whenever they were forced to be in the same room. This was before the portal accident.

Dipper nods, rubbing at his arms. “I mean, yeah. He’s your twin brother. Mabel and I were staying with him for the summer.” He leaves it vague, not sure how much he should tell. You’d think after the thing with Waddles and epic Time Laser Tag he’d know how to handle being in the past. Plus the idea of telling Ford about him being trapped for thirty years hopping through dimensions makes him feel extra super sweaty.

Ford gives a huffing sort of a snort, “Your parents left you two with Stan? Once this is all done I’ll need to have a talk with Sherman about teaching his kids some sense.” He says it so casually, like it’s a practiced thing to dismiss Stan, and that irks Dipper a little but he keeps his mouth shut. Ford sighs and runs a hand through his hair; further messing it up if that was even possible. “Time traveling niblings. That’s gotta be too crazy, even for Bill…maybe. Damn it, all my notes about the time anomaly are in…Journal…”

It’s apparently Ford’s turn to sway. Dipper realizes, as Ford stumbles back against the door and begins slipping down the surface, that he might not be the only Pines that worked himself until he passed out. And if Ford paid as much attention to eating and sleeping as he did to his personal hygiene, then they were in all kinds of trouble. Dipper moves forward to try to prop his uncle up but only really manages to marginally slow down his descent to the floor where he proceeds to promptly start snoring.

Oh geez.

[artforinfinity]

I like to think I'm funny

[daretobeking]

Blog promo

haha i have no shame, wait thats a lie i just want asks UnU

@hws-gods-liechtenstein-prussia

A part of the hws-gods-au! Gilbert is a god of pride and memories, previously known as a god of violence and war. Erika is a little girl who found Gil and saved him from disappearing completely, and he became her older brother/father figure while Vash was gone.

@hwstimetrapped

An AU run by @tyberiousfiresrone and I, a ragtag group of people from various centuries brought together while they dream. Why are they here and what is their story?

@everywherenowhere

My art blog so I don’t have art lost in here, no posts on it yet but my asks are open to requests.

@ask-cohabitation-seborga

A part of the cohabitation AU! Savio is a faerie dragon working as a park ranger, something is different about his forest though. There’s a reason the path that leads there is closed off. No posts just yet, but my asks are indeed open :).

[sleepsentry]

Any feelings/ideas about the timetrapped AU? Basically, the kids getting sent back in time through shenanigans to the younger versions of their grunkles (pre or post reveal, I frankly love both concepts)

Love the idea! Never read any fics or thought too hard about how it could play out in full. There's a lot of different possibilities and the fanart is very cute usually. B]

[buradeeznuts]

You have to understand I am deranged for the Pokemon AU I made. (Notice the Timetrap AU reference in the second image?)

IDK IF YOU SENT THIS TO THE RIGHT PERSON BUT OH MY GOODNESS THIS IS SUPER CUTE

[midnightthesans]

aye I didn’t know you had an au idea, what is it?:0

au name is timetrap. its set on surface, everyone is human (Like, also the main character) The sans is vance. the papyrus is K the undyne is Lieda (lee da) I have the designs, the magics, the *CHECK* The stats, and thats it.

https://picrew.me/image_maker/526485/complete?cd=3apHNzjOlI (Vance)

https://picrew.me/image_maker/526485/complete?cd=89hkIqgWf4 (K)

https://picrew.me/image_maker/526485/complete?cd=Qrs3lTKCzy

(Lieda) :)

[aceofstars16]

Next chapter is up! It's the climax...hehehe

Ford takes a drastic measure to stop Bill…

You can read on AO3 or below the cut

Chapter 10 - Desperate

“This was no accident, Stan; you did this!

“And until you make us a fortune, you're not welcome in this household!”

“Stanford? Don't leave me hangin'. High six?”

Stan looked up at the window, looking desperately at his brother. Then the curtains closed and he was alone. For a moment, the word seemed to grow dark. Then he yelled up at the window.

“Fine, I don’t need you, I don’t need anyone!”

“So why should you help him now?”

The thought entered Stan’s mind, unbidden, but he couldn’t entirely reason away. Ford had pushed him away. He had left him to his own devices. And now he had called him here because he needed help. When Ford hadn’t helped him in his desperation. When he was just a kid…

“Would he do the same for you now?”

Once again, the thought felt disconnected to the scene, but it was something Stan had wondered. Had Ford changed? Had he realized he'd made a mistake in pushing Stan away? Or had he changed so much that none of the brother he remembered remained?

“Stanley?”

The voice echoed around the dream, then everything started to fade away. In a blink, the memory was gone and Stan was looking up at the ceiling. A hand shook his shoulder and he batted it away.

“I’m up, I’m up.” Truthfully, sleep still clung to him. The thoughts in his dream were still ringing in his head, planting seeds of doubt in his mind. Which only grew as he sat up and saw Ford looking at him, a frown etched on his face. The eyepatch he had been wearing was nowhere to be seen.

“Good, I...I need your help with something.” Ford looked at the ground as he spoke. There was an edge to his voice that made Stan uneasy.

“You want me to tie you up again so you can sleep?” It was the logical assumption. Ford still looked exhausted, and sleep could only be good for him. Even if it meant having another frustrating conversation with the stupid triangle guy.

“What?” Ford glanced at him and shook his head. “No, it’s…something else.”

“What is it?” Stan could practically hear Bill mocking him, telling him that Ford only wanted him to come to his house to send him away again. Was he finally going to learn the truth?

“I…” Ford let out a breath, still not looking at Stan. “Come on. I…I need to show you something first.”

So much for answers. Trying to push aside the disappointment, Stan stood up, shaking the remnants of drowsiness from his body. “Uh…lead the way I guess.”

Ford nodded and stood up, not even looking at Stan. Then he headed out of the room and lead Stan to a bookcase, with an elevator behind it.

“Woah…this is fancy…” Stan muttered. It was hard not to be a little jealous that Ford had a nice house with an elevator when he only had his car.

Ford hit a button in the elevator and it descended, the silence only broken by the rumbling of the mechanics. And as the seconds ticked by, Stan could feel a weight growing in his chest. The door opened and he was immediately met with a room full of a bunch of machines that he didn’t understand. It looked like a nerd’s paradise. So it made perfect sense for Ford.

“Hope you don’t expect me to work any of this stuff.” Stan placed a hand on one of the machines.

“Don’t touch-!” Ford snapped, and Stan quickly removed his hand, feeling a spark of annoyance as his brother’s aggravation. Why bring him here if he was worried about Stan messing something up?

“I…” Ford shook his head. “Sorry. I just…I need you to understand that this is dangerous.”

The heaviness in Stan’s chest grew. “Is this what the kids were talking about?”

Ford looked at Stan in confusion, then it cleared and he sighed. “Yes, it’s…one of my biggest mistakes.”

Stan swallowed down any resentment at knowing that Ford leaving him behind wasn’t his biggest mistake. However, the thought was quickly chased away as Ford pulled a switch, resulting in a cavern outside of the room lighting up.

“Woah…what’s…?”

“It's a trans-universal gateway, a punched hole through a weak spot in our dimension. It connects to…Bill’s domain.” Ford huffed. “I suppose I should tell you about Bill.”

“The weird triangle that wants to take over the universe?”

“What? How did you-?”

“Dipper told me while you were gone. Granted, it sounds like something out of a TV show or something, but…” Stan paused, not sure if he wanted to admit that he'd talked with Bill while Ford had been asleep.

“He’s real.” Ford said, glancing at the portal. “And I need your help to get rid of him.”

“Me? What do you want me to do? Punch you really hard or something?” Stan couldn’t imagine how he was supposed to stop something that lived in Ford’s mind.

Ford let out a strained laugh. “No…not…not exactly.”

There was silence for a moment.

“Stan…” Ford looked at him, maintaining eye contact for the first time since he had woken Stan up. “I need you to promise me that you will do what I ask of you. No matter what.”

The words hung in the air. Stan found himself frozen in place. There was something in Ford’s gaze that made him hesitate. He couldn’t pinpoint it at first. Then it hit him. Ford was scared. No, not scared. He was terrified.

“What…what are you wanting me to do?” Stan could barely get the words out. He had never seen Ford look so…shaken.

Ford’s gaze flicked away. “I…I need your word first, Stanley.”

“Ford, what’s going on? What are you thinking? Please, talk to me!” Anxiety was growing in Stan’s body with each second. He didn’t know what Ford was thinking, but everything in him was screaming that it wasn’t good.

Ford swallowed hard. “I…I have to get rid of Bill, Stan. But I can’t do it without you.” He glanced up, looking at Stan again. The terror was evident in every line of his face – he wasn’t trying to hide it any more. But there was something else lying underneath it. Desperation.

 “Please, Stanley. Promise me.”

Every bit of Stan’s common sense screamed at him to decline. There was something bad going down. This was not right. But the absolute desperation on Ford’s face stopped him from telling his brother that he was crazy and he’d never agree to do something until he knew what it was. Because Ford needed him. So, despite his better judgement, Stan found himself nodding.

“Alright…fine…I…” He swallowed and met Ford’s gaze. “I promise.”

Ford’s shoulder’s relaxed and he drooped in relief. “Thank you, Stanley…”

Stan tried his best to smile at his brother. “Yeah, so uh…what’s the plan?”

Swallowing, Ford dug into his coat and pulled out a gun of sorts. He fiddled with it for a bit, seeming to input something into it. “I need you to…take this and…” His fingers froze for a moment, panic crossing his face. Then he shook his head. “I need you to shoot me with it.”

“WHAT?!?” Stan stared at his brother in shock. “I’m not going to shoot you, Stanford!”

“It’s not a normal gun, Stanley. It’s…it’s just something that will get Bill out of my head. That’s all.” As he spoke, Ford held out the gun for Stan to see more clearly.

Trying to taper his dread, Stan looked at the gun. It definitely didn’t look like a regular gun, but still… “It won’t hurt you?”

Ford looked away for a moment, closing his eyes and taking a deep breath before looking back at Stan. “No, it won’t hurt me.”

Stan found the words less than reassuring. But he trusted his brother. He had to. It would be okay.

“There is one more thing.”

The dread returned full force. “What?”

“To make sure that Bill is fully in my head, so he can’t survive, I need to let him take over my body.” Ford frowned. “And unfortunately, he knows what I’m thinking, so he will try to convince you not to do it. He will say anything, Stanley. But you can’t listen to him.” The desperation was back, creeping into Ford’s voice and covering his face as he spoke. “Do you understand?”

Despite the unease that had been haunting Stan since he came down here, he felt a resolve overwhelming him. This thing had been hurting his brother. And now he could get rid of it. “I understand.”

Ford nodded. “Good. Now…let me show you how this works…”

-----

Dipper woke with a start. Wind was battering against the windows, and as he sat up, a branch hit the house, resulting in a loud BANG. Which explained why he’d woken up.

Rubbing his eyes, Dipper looked around. It was fairly dark in the room, but there was a small lamp on, showing Fiddleford conked out on the table with the time machine. He vaguely remembered sitting down with Mabel and talking about Stan and Ford. She hadn’t seemed to learn much about what had happened between them, but Stan had told Dipper everything. Or at least, everything from his perspective. Mabel, of course, had been crushed, and Dipper himself couldn’t shake the uneasiness at how such a little mistake could tear twins apart.

Before they had had fallen asleep, they had promised not to let anything like that happen between them. Though there was one thing that Dipper found himself worrying about.

“We have to help them make up!”

“But, Mabel, we don’t know how that would affect the future!”

“But they need each other, Dipper!”

“I…I don’t know, Mabel. Maybe we should sleep on it.”

The hurt on Mabel’s face still haunted Dipper as he glanced at her. She was still fast asleep. It’s not that he didn’t want to help Stan and Ford, but he also didn’t want to do something that would destroy the timeline. For all he knew, if they did something drastic then they might cease to exist.

Sighing, Dipper slowly got up, careful not to move Mabel. He needed some water to help him clear his head. But as he walked by Ford’s room, he noticed that the door was open. And poking his head in, he saw that no one was inside. Where were Stan and Ford?

All thoughts of water forgotten, Dipper quickly made his way around the house, looking for the brothers. But they weren’t anywhere to be found. Which only left…the basement.

Memories of his last time down there played in his mind. He didn’t really want to go down there by himself again, even if Stan was down there too. Swallowing hard, Dipper made his way back to Mabel and gently shook her.

“Mabel. Hey, wake up.”

“No more Smile Dip.” Mabel muttered in her sleep and Dipper shook her again. This time she jolted awake.

“Huh? What? Dipper? What time is it?”

“I…I’m not sure. But I can’t find Stan or Ford. I think they might be…in the basement.” Dipper said, glancing in the direction of the bookshelf.

“Why would they be there?” Mabel muttered, sitting up.

“I don’t know but…with everything going on I…I think we should check it out.”

Mabel frowned. “Do you think Bill is doing something?”

“I don’t know…”

“Don’t mention that name.”

Dipper and Mabel both looked quickly towards the table.

Fiddleford was blinking hard, but frowning at them.

“You know about Bill?” Dipper couldn’t help but ask.

Not meeting his gaze, Fiddleford nodded. “A little. I don’t remember much but…” He shook his head. “Never mind. Bill can’t be trusted.”

“We know that.” Mabel said.

“Which is why I want to go down to the basement to make sure everything is…okay.” Dipper said, trying to ignore the goosebumps growing on his arms.

“I’m not going down there again it’s…” Fiddleford trailed off. “Wait a second. How long have I been asleep?”

Dipper shrugged as did Mabel. “I don’t know, you were still awake when we fell asleep.”

“I remember working…and then…Ford brought me some coco…I never could stay awake after drinking a cup…” Fiddleford sat up straight, then grabbed for the bag that he had brought with him and dug around in it. “No, no, no! Where is it?”

“Where’s what?” Dipper and Mabel asked at the same time.

“My memory gun, it’s…it’s gone!”

“Your what?!?” Dipper blurted out.

A shadow grew over Fiddleford’s face. “I don’t know what’s going on but…” He let out a huff. “We have to find Stan and Ford.”

-----

“So, it shoots light or something?”

Ford could hear the uncertainty in Stan’s voice, but he did his best to ignore it. Stan had already agreed to his request, all he had to do was make sure that it went according to plan.

“Not light exactly, it’s complicated. But it does look like light.”

“Right…” Stan said, and Ford could feel his eyes on him. Ford knew that Stan wasn’t a huge fan of this plan. After all, despite what had happened ten years ago, Ford knew he wouldn’t want to wipe Stan’s mind. Not that Stan knew what the gun would do but…Ford knew that if he told him, he wouldn’t do it. And Bill needed to be stopped. This was the only way.

“Right. And there are a few things I…need to make sure you do after Bill is gone.” Despite his exhaustion, Ford found himself pacing. After all. that would aid him in letting Bill take over.

“Woah woah, what do you mean? You can just make sure they get done, right?”

Ford made the mistake of looking at his brother. He caught the concern in his gaze and quickly looked away., blinking a few times to try to ease the discomfort in his eye. “Yes, well…I will probably need to rest afterwards. And these things should be done as soon as possible.” It wasn’t a full lie. Ford would need sleep afterwards. It just…wasn’t the full truth either.

“Ford…” Stan’s hand rested on his back and Ford skittered to a stop at the familiar gesture. “Is there something I should know?”

For a moment, Ford considered telling Stan the truth. But he couldn’t. Swallowing he shook his head. “No…I mean, yes. After everything is done, I need you to make sure that the portal gets dismantled. Fiddleford should be able to help with that. And he can use parts from the portal to fix the time machine as well.”

“Okay…I can do that I guess…” Stan glanced at the portal and Ford followed his gaze before quickly looking away.

“Good. Make sure the kids get back and…” Sighing, Ford pulled his journal out of his coat. “I need you to hide this somewhere too.”

“What? Hide it? Why?”

“It…it has too much dangerous information in it. No one should ever find it. I’ve already hidden the other two.” Ford held the book out and Stan hesitantly accepted it, frowning.

“Doesn’t Dipper have one of them?”

Ford let out a breath. “Well, yes, but…that’s in the future. I…maybe Fiddleford should check my hiding place and make sure it can’t be accessed….” He muttered to himself, his thoughts going faster than his mind could keep up with. Shaking his head, he brushed aside his mutterings. “But someone needs all of the journals to understand the portal anyway, so it…it should be fine.”

“You sure?” Stan was looking at Ford again, doubt clouding his gaze.

Quickly looking away, Ford nodded. “Yes. I…I think that’s everything. I’m…I’m going to meditate. Bill used to use me that way. And if not…”

“You’re tired enough you’ll probably fall asleep anyway?”

Ford quickly looked at Stan as he said exactly what he was thinking.

“You look dead on your feet, Sixer. It’s not that hard to put together.”

“Oh…right…” Ford sighed, then gestured to the journal in Stan’s hand. “You can put that away. Focus on the gun right now. And remember-”

“The creep is gonna try to convince me not to shoot you. I got it, Ford.”

For a moment, Ford looked at Stan. Not for the first time, anxiety grew in his chest. He didn’t want to lose his memory. He didn’t want to forget everything. Panic started growing in his chest. Then a hand rested on his shoulder and their eyes met.

“It’ll be okay, Stanford. I promised, remember?”

There was nothing in Stan’s voice that left any room for doubt. Ford could trust his brother. For a moment, he opened his mouth, wanting to tell Stan what would really happen. And how scared he was. Then Stan grinned and patted his shoulder.

“Now, you go on and meditate or whatever.” He held up the memory gun. “I’ll get rid of that jerk.”

Ford’s gaze grew blurry and it took him a moment to realize that his eyes were watering. No, not watering – tearing up. He quickly looked away and nodded. “Right.”

Then he sat down and crossed his legs. Looking up, he saw Stan giving him a thumbs up. That was the last thing he saw before he closed his eyes.

-----

Stan watched as Ford sat there. He had never meditated before so he didn’t really know what to expect. After a few minutes he started tapping his foot.

“Stan, I can’t focus when you do that.”

Letting out a breath, Stan stilled his foot. “Right. Sorry.” It wasn’t his fault that his anxiety was building. After all, he didn’t know exactly what to expect, and just the thought of pointing a gun – even one without bullets – at Ford just felt wrong.

Time ticked on again. Stan tried to hold his tongue, but patience was never his strong suit. “How long does this normally take?”

A frustrated sigh escaped Ford. “Stanley, please this…this is hard enough as it is.”

Trying his best to swallow down his anxiety, Stan tapped his fingers on the gun. It wasn’t as loud as his foot, and Ford didn’t comment about it, so he figured it wasn’t too loud. As he did so, he glanced at the gun, his gaze resting on the screen at the end of it.

Wait. Why did it say…Stanford Pines? Wasn’t it supposed to get rid of Bill?

“You know, he doesn’t really trust you.”

Stan jumped at the voice, immediately pointing the gun at Ford. Because despite the voice being his brother, he knew that it wasn’t really him. His finger found the trigger, and he started to pull it.

“He didn’t tell you what that thing would actually do to him.” Ford looked up at him and smiled knowingly, which effectively stopped Stan’s finger.

“He told me it would get rid of you.” Swallowing, Stan started pulling on the trigger again.

“Ah, yes. But he didn’t tell you that it would get rid of him too.” Ford held up his hand and studied it. “Would be a shame for you to destroy your brother, wouldn’t it?”

The words made Stan’s skin crawl, and his finger stilled again. Then he shook his head, remembering that Ford had told him Bill would do this. He’d try anything to keep Stan from shooting him. “I know your game, triangle. You can’t fool me.”

Ford tapped his chin thoughtfully then grinned in a way that mad Stan’s skin crawl. “I’m not trying to fool you. I know what your brother didn’t tell you. He’s so desperate to get rid of me, that he asked his own brother to destroy his mind.”

 “I…he wouldn’t…”

“Wouldn’t he?” Ford grinned. “Why else do you think his name is on that gun?”

Against his will, Stan found his hand lowering. He knew this had to be a game, just Bill trying to get into his mind too. But…Ford hadn’t exactly explained how this gun worked…

“That’s right...” Ford slowly stood up. “You are only a tool for him. He doesn’t actually care about YOU!”

At the last word, Ford lunged for the gun. Stan tightened his grip on it too late. It went clattering to the ground, a slight chinking sound filling the air as it did so. Stan lunged for it but Ford slammed him into the ground sending the gun skittering further away.

Kicking hard, Stan tried his best to shove Ford off of him.

“Oof, you are a fighter, huh?” Ford growled, then bolted forward.

Stan quickly swung out his leg, tripping his brother. Lunging forward, he reached for the gun. Something grabbed his leg and he kicked without thinking and thrust his arm forward, grabbing the gun.

“Give me that!” Ford screamed and in that split second, instinct took over.

Stan rolled over and fired.

Light erupted from the gun, hitting Ford right in the head. The scream that escaped his brother chilled Stan to the bone, but he couldn’t force his finger to leave the trigger.

The whirring of the gun grew louder and higher pitched. Then the bulb shattered, cutting off the light. Stan quickly threw the gun to the side, grimacing as a few pieces of glass cut his hand.

For a moment, Stan just sat there, catching his breath as adrenaline continued to pulse through his body.

A groan shook him from his shock and he looked at Ford.

His brother was kneeling on the ground, holding his head. Panic overwhelmed Stan and he quickly scooted forward. “Ford, are…are you…?”

Ford slowly looked up, his hands falling from his head as he did so. He narrowed his eyes in confusion as he looked at Stan. “Wha-?”

Stan sagged with relief. Deep down he knew that Ford was himself again. Bill wasn’t in control. “Oh thank goodness.” Stan couldn’t stop himself from reaching forward and pulling Ford into a hug.

Ford didn’t return the hug, and Stan realized maybe he needed a little space after having Bill in his mind. Leaning back, he let out a breath and smiled reassuringly. “You’re okay. I thought that stupid triangle might actually be telling the truth.”

 “T-triangle? Wh-what?” Ford muttered, looking around in confusion.

“Don’t worry about him. He…I think he’s gone now. Come on.” Stan stood up and held out his hand, finding a real smile growing on his face. It was over. He had helped Ford, and Bill was gone.

“I…okay…but…” Ford looked at Stan’s hand then up at him, confusion etched on his face. “Who are you?”

[saiyanqueenreads]

Chapters: 2/? Fandom: Gravity Falls Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Characters: The Author | Original Stanford Pines, Grunkle Stan | Stanley "Stanford" Pines, Dipper Pines, Mabel Pines, Fiddleford H. McGucket Additional Tags: Timetrapped Au, timestuck au, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Family Bonding, Mullet Grunkle Stan, rated for language, And probably future violence

Summary: She traces up the arm, clad in a grimy red jacket that looked like a crime against heat as well as fashion, to the owner of both it and the voice. “WHAT?!” she screams again. The circles under his eyes are much less pronounced with only the beginnings of crow’s feet at the corners, though they’re currently narrowed at her. His face is unshaven and unwashed; his hair is long and greasy and brown. It’s a little unnerving how much he resembles her dad.

---

His eyes are bloodshot, hair sticking out in all directions, and even from a distance Dipper can smell that he hasn’t showered in at least several days. He looks even more tired than Dipper remembers seeing him yesterday, the bags under his eyes deeper and darker than usual. But even with that, and the extreme scruff on his cheeks, he still looks younger. Ford takes another step out the door and lines up the bolt with Dipper’s head, “I said: who sent you?!”

[incorrectinfinity]

Revised version of Timetrap game night.

YEAH....

[donutpwns]

Journey to the Roots part 5

Part 4 - Part 6

“Mabel, this is a bad idea!” Dipper insists for the hundredth time since they left the Shack. Now that they stood at the entrance to the cave it seemed like an even worse idea than it had when Mabel had first suggested it.

She gives him that look she always does when he argues with her, eyes narrowed and cheeks puffed out. She’s half a second from sticking her tongue out at him. “Do you have a better one?” her response is punctuated with her putting her fists against her hips and leaning in way too close to his face.

He frowns, leaning back when it looks like her nose is about to touch his, “No, but—”

“Then come on!” she grabs his hand and pulls him inside. “Don’t be such a scaredy cat! Grunkle Ford will be super impressed with us, just wait and see!”

The cave is how Ford described it; creepy as all get out. There’s triangles painted all over the walls, images of Bill both terrorizing and being terrorized. Dipper squeezes his sister’s hand; it feels like all the eyes are watching them. Had this place had this...air about it? When Ford had come here? Or is it just because they know what Bill is, what he’s capable of? Dipper doesn’t like it, that’s for sure.

Mabel is putting on a brave face but maybe she leans a bit closer to her brother and squeezes his hand right back. This was a great idea, she was sure of it because all of her non-boy-related ideas were Great with a capital G. Dipper had told her about the cave and the rift and what had happened between Bill and Grunkle Ford, because they’d promised to trust each other and not to keep secrets. So she’d gotten the idea for them to come here to learn more about Bill. In stories, the kind that Dipper loved to gush about and write theories to talk at her about, the end was always at the beginning. Foreshadowing and all that junk.

There was a giant splash of red on one wall that had dripped to cover a bunch of weird symbols. The edges were smeared with shapes that looked like hands. It made Mabel think of a giant finger painting piece. She frowns, leaning forward to sniff at the wall despite the noise Dipper made.

“Mabel, what are you doing?” he pulls her back from the wall, peering around at the other paintings on the walls. Something felt so off about this place. It feels like something is alive in the walls; the air is too warm for a cave even in the summer.

“This paint is fresh.” Mabel points out; she can tell by the smell after all the paint she’d used over the years. She taps her fingers to the wall to find that the paint is dry. “Grunkle Ford was here thirty years ago but someone was here recently.” A chill runs down her spine and she pulls her hand away from the wall. “You don’t think Bill…?”

Dipper swallows thickly. Everything in his gut tells him they need to run but his curiosity sticks him in place. This was to figure out how to stop Bill, to protect Ford and Stan and all of Gravity Falls. Fate of the world stuff. He lets go of Mabel’s hand so he can pull out the notebook he’d tucked into the back of his shorts. Inside it he’s copied down everything Ford had between his Journals about Bill, all the symbols. There had to be something Ford had missed.

   WELL WELL WELL WELL WHAT DO WE HAVE HERE?

   Their hands tingle and burn. Static. Screams. Noise fills their heads, deafening all sound.

   Stan and Ford will be so mad. They have to stop it. They have to stop him. He can’t win.

   They just wanted to keep everyone safe.

  ----------------

Her right eye feels like it’s been gouged out with a hot spoon when she wakes up; the rest of her doesn’t feel too hot either. Her stomach is cramping, head pounding, and she feels like she’s been dunked into a tub full of ice for how cold she is. She squeezes her eyes shut and moves her hands over her arms, trying to burrow her face into water soft thing she’s on. Her sweater sleeves are damp, which might be why she’s so cold.

“Dipperrrr, tell Grunkle Stan to turn up the heat.” She grumbles into the cushion, trying to will herself back to sleep. She could change into dry clothes later and ask Soos to finally fix the dryer. Now she needs to sleep off this yuck-fest.

“Oh, one of them’s awake. Mabel, don’t go back to sleep.” There’s a hand on her shoulder, turning her towards the sound of the voice. “Wake up, sweetheart; we need to ask you some questions.”

She cracks one eye open, the one that’s not burning as bad, and lets out a startled squeak when she sees Grunkle Stan’s face super close to hers. Wait, no. Not Grunkle, it’s her Younkle. Younkle Stan cause this Stan is young and greasy but still just as scruffy. With a groan, she pushes herself to sit up, which is when she sees who is sitting next to her.

In an instant she’s forgotten her pain in favor of latching herself to a disgruntled, young looking Ford. “Younkle Ford! Yay!” she realizes she’s on a couch and stands up on it, hands gripping one of Ford’s shoulders for balance. “Younkle Stan, we found him! And he’s only slightly gross! Oh, hey, Dipper!” she spots her brother sleeping on the other side of Ford and tries to dive over her uncle to get to him. “Dipper!”

Ford catches her before she can grab Dipper, hefting her up only to deposit her right back onto the couch. She huffs and tries to pull away when he leans in close to her face, a tiny flashlight in his hand. This Ford was a lot grumpier than the one she knew. She liked the Ford that called her weird with a smile and shyly asked her to make him a sweater and said her Mabel juice was better than coffee. A scientific breakthrough in energy drinks, and the plastic dinosaurs gave it personality.

“Geez, Ford, you think you could give her a second before going all scientist on her?” Stan grunts and he's got a hand on Mabel’s shoulder. He gives her a small smile though he looks worried so Mabel grins right back at him. “How you feeling, sweetheart?”

Mabel takes stock of herself; her head hurts but not as bad as last time, though her scalp feels very tender for some reason. Her stomach hurts and her mouth tastes like throw up. Her right eye burns and when she forces it open it takes several blinks before she can see out of it. She wants nothing more than to jump on Dipper and wake him up. Why were they both asleep? Was this like their weird allergy thing? Maybe they were finally developing a psychic twin connection like they'd tried to force when they were five. She tries to send silent commands for him to wake up.

Mabel hums as she pulls off her damp sweater and jacket, tossing them to the floor once she's in just her tank top even though it's cold. She burrows herself against Ford’s side; grumpy or not he's still warm. “Bad but not as bad as before. Younkle Ford do you know what's wrong with me? Or how we got here?” she looks up at him with a frown.

Ford’s got this lost dog look on his face, arm hovering over where she's glued to his side. She grabs his hand to force him to give her a one armed hug because hugs make everything better and also warm. He clears his throat and shakes his head. “Ahem, I'm afraid not. There hasn't been much...Mabel, right?” she nods and he smiles just so before covering it with another frown. “Mabel, Stan mentioned you were sick. Were you sick before you came back in time?”

She shrugs. This time when Ford tries to check her eyes with his tiny flashlight she lets him, just cause he keeps the one arm around her. It hurts her eyes but no more than going to the eye doctor and at least Ford won't tell her that she'll probably need glasses in a few years or how bad it is to get glitter in her eyes. “I don't remember too much after Dipper and I left for the cave.”

The flashlight clicks off and she tries to blink away the spots in her vision. “The cave?” Ford’s voice is all shaky and cracks like Dipper’s does sometimes even though Ford is still old even if he’s not old. Mabel gets her arm around as much of his stomach as she can to hug him because he must be thinking about Bill. Stupid dumb jerk of triangle.

“The one with all the paintings. You told Dipper about it.” and they'd gone there to look for...something. The sharp feeling is coming back to her brain as she tries to remember. She realizes the cave is a new memory; she'd forgotten but her dream brought it back. Her stomach gives a now familiar churn when she tries to chase the details; what did the paintings look like? What did they see in the cave?

Why was Stan’s leg wrapped in bandages?

Her uncle kept picking at the edge of them, the heel of his shoe hooked up on the edge of the coffee table he was sitting on. And— oh that was a lot of blood soaking his sock and show. When had Stan gotten hurt? Actually...when had they gotten here? She’d been knitting in the car but now she was here and Ford wouldn’t let her hug Dipper. Panic started bubbling up inside her chest; she couldn't remember. She was losing time again. She was losing time and Stan had gotten hurt and she was supposed to protect her uncles now that she could. She was meant to keep everyone safe. That was the point of it, wasn’t it? She wants to believe so but trying to remember, trying to think is like wading through thick mud filled with sharp rocks waiting to stab her if she makes a wrong step. Her fingers dig tighter into Ford’s sweater as she tries to stare through Stan’s bandages, tries to remember getting to the Shack. She wants to wake Dipper up; wants to cling to him until everything makes sense again. Wants him to explain everything with his nerd words that she doesn’t understand but it makes her feel better because Dipper understands and if he does then they’ll be okay.

A pair of fingers snaps in front of her face, drawing her out of her mania like it had in the car. She blinks rapidly and feels the wetness on her cheeks that she quickly scrubs away, letting go of Ford to do so. Stan’s got that soft worried look again and is saying his ‘just breathe’ mantra.

“I don’t remember. I don’t remember what happened in the cave, I don’t remember how we got sent back, I don’t remember sleeping in the car, I don’t remember getting here. I’m trying but it hurts like I’m not supposed to remember.” The words pour out along with more tears and she can’t even escape to Sweater Town because her sweater is on the floor. She’s shaking all over, not just from the cold, and Dipper is right there but Ford’s got a grip on her shoulder. “Nothing makes sense and Stan’s hurt and I don’t know why. Can we wake up Dipper, please? He-he probably knows what’s going on. He’s smart, like you, Younkle Ford.” She just wants her brother. He’s the key to making everything make sense, she knows it. Everything will make sense once the two of them are together.

Just touch his hand and it’ll be okay.

Stan grabs her forearm when she reaches towards her brother; Ford’s hand grips her shoulder tighter. “Listen, sweetheart, something weird is going on with you and your brother. When you two touched...well…”

“You appeared possessed by Bill and attacked.” Ford says and she feels her stomach drop. “Stan had to forcibly separate you two to stop you. Do you have any memories of that?”

“Holy shit, Ford, ease into it why don't you?”

Possessed? She was possessed by Bill? And she—oh no, Stan’s leg, was that her? Horror filled her heart; she'd hurt Stan! All that blood because of her. Because she'd made Dipper go to the cave and-and whatever happened happened. It was all her fault. The unicorn was right and Stan was wrong, she was a bad person. She’s ruined everything and now she can't even lean on her brother.

How was she going to save Ford and Stan without Dipper? When she just kept making everything worse?

“What’s wrong with Mabel?” Dipper’s voice comes from Ford’s other side and she looks up to see him staring at her. Through her tears she can see that his eyes are red; his left eye looks bloody and he's got red smears under it. He sounds as tired as she feels. A small ember of hope burns when he reaches towards her.

Just touch his hand. Grab it.

Stan catches Dipper’s wrist before they can touch, dousing her ember with ice water. In the back of her mind she swears she hears a hiss.

Ford sighs and finally lets go of Mabel in favor of picking Dipper up off the couch. He sits Dipper next to Stan, still away from Mabel. Mabel slumps against Ford’s side to at least absorb some warmth; this time he puts an arm around her without her having to tug it. A small smile tugs despite how garbage she feels when she looks at his big hand; a whole finger friendlier than normal. She meets Dipper’s eyes and wiggles her fingers in a hello. “Hey, bro-bro.”

Dipper smiles back at her, mimicking her by slumping against Stan’s side. Stan looks as awkward as ever which makes her feel simultaneously better and worse. Dipper coughs into his hand. He looks around, mouth curling down into a frown, “Uhh, where’s McGucket?”

Mabel can practically hear the way Ford grinds his teeth above her; his hand twitches against her side. “After what happened, he elected to return home for the time being. Said he would return tomorrow with his notes on memory loss. Apparently he’s been…busy since we parted ways.” There’s an irritation to his words.

She looks at Dipper; he nods like he knows what she’s thinking. Oh. Poor McGucket. A scrambled man with a mind full of holes. Maybe they can help him, once everything else is done. Stop him from hurting himself, from destroying himself until he’s a laughing stock in the town’s dump.

Dipper looks sad, looks scared, which just serves to make her already mounting guilt seem even more all-encompassing. “Do you not remember anything either, Mabel?”

----------------

He can hear the sounds of his sister crying, muffled through the fog of pain that fills his mind. It's not the sniffling homesick tears he sometimes hears in the night or the melodramatic performance when she's trying to sound more upset than she was. He’s reminded of the night after Mermando had gone home, when she'd cried into his shoulder. Of the way she'd cried about Gideon, about feeling stupid and guilty. The way she'd cried about almost letting Bill destroy the journal.

He pushes himself to sitting, squinting through a blurry haze. There she is, on the other side of Ford, a panicked look on her face and tears streaming down her face. Ford is focusing so hard on her but Stan looks at Dipper as he sits up. Why is she crying? What happened? When had Dipper fallen asleep, so soon after telling Ford that he wasn’t sick? Right after McGucket had seen someone outside—

Stan. He’d seen Stan.

Another stab of pain to his head, like a burn being branded into his eye. He couldn’t remember seeing Stan come in, couldn’t remember seeing Mabel; had he fainted? Is that why he was feeling sick, from fainting? Was that why Mabel was so upset? Were they both sick? “What’s wrong with Mabel?” his throat burns when he speaks and his mouth tastes awful.

She looks up at him, eyes red and filled with tears and he hates seeing her cry. His sister is supposed to be bright colors and sunshine. Loud and annoying, bigger than him and full of screams of joy, not small and quiet. She fills silence, fills the very air, with who she is and this isn’t it.

She needs you. Grab her hand.

Stan grabs his hand before it can get close to hers, drawing him out of the trance he had fallen into. Ford moves him to sit next to Stan, a marked distance between him and his twin; Dipper has to move some books to make room for himself on the table. There were a lot more books on the floor than there were before, he’s pretty sure.

McGucket is gone but at least his notes might help figure out what’s going on with their heads.

“Do you not remember anything either, Mabel?” he frowns, the hope that his sister might be able to shed some light on the situation vanishing. The thought of the cave comes to mind, of being there with Mabel, but with it comes the threat of pain. He needs to remember but there’s a block there, something preventing him from touching the truth and keeping it right out of his grasp.

Mabel curls in on herself and effectively tucks herself even more so into Ford’s side. She shakes her head, “N-no, it hurts to try. But…but they said it’s…” her voice warbles and she hiccups; the wrongness of how not Mabel this hits him, “Dipper, they said he took over when we touched. And he-he-Stan got hurt and it’s all my fault, Dipper. I wanted to go to the cave and now he’s in our heads and it’s all my fault!”

“Mabel, no, that’s not…that’s not possible. Bill can’t take over two people.” he shakes his head, a hopeful smile taking over his face even as Stan grabs his shoulders when he tries to reach for his sister. He looks up at Ford; the smile is hard to keep up with the displeased look on his uncle’s face. “That’s not possible, right, Ford? He can’t do that, right?”

Ford is silent; Dipper doesn’t know if he’s uncomfortable because he doesn’t want to answer or because of how Mabel is crying into his sweater. He’s tapping his fingers fast against the couch cushion.

It’s like the ground has disappeared out from beneath him. Dipper remembers the feeling of being out of his body; that wrong feeling of knowing Bill had been in his head. The idea that Bill was lurking in his mind...just waiting to take control of not just him but his sister too…it sends a shard of ice through his heart, a spike of pure fear. After everything that stupid triangle had done to their family, now he was taking his sister from him too? “Can't you get him out of our heads?” he’s afraid of the answer. Would metal plates work for them, like with Ford in the future? Or would that just trap Bill in? Dipper’s furious with himself for not asking more questions when Ford had decided to trust him.

Ford sighs, rubbing at his eyes with the hand not around Mabel. Dipper’s suddenly struck by how tired Ford looks. He looks up at Stan who is also a lot more exhausted looking than Dipper had noticed at first glance. When was the last time either of his uncles had gotten any proper sleep?

“I don’t know, Dipper. I’ve been looking into ways to rid oneself of Bill and his influence, but it’s all for one person and very invasive. I never even considered the possibility of Bill inhabiting two minds at once. He never…it was always about being in my head, nobody else’s.” he looks away, that uncomfortable look back on his face and his fingers tapping faster against the cushion.

“He said he was a muse.”

“What about the spell we used to go into Grunkle Stan’s mind?” Dipper looks up to see Mabel pulling herself away from Ford, wiping her face on the back of her arm. “When Bill was trying to get the safe code for Gideon?”

Dipper’s face lights up; of course! “That’s right!” They were able to fight Bill on equal ground in Stan’s mindscape and chase him out. If they could do that again—

“That thing/Bill’s been in my/Stanley’s head?” Stan and Ford speak at the same time, both looking equal measures of disturbed at the idea. Dipper shares a smile with Mabel when both their uncles go red at the realization that they spoke in unison. True twins.

Dipper jumps off the table; he sees the way both uncles tense and makes sure to keep a distance from Mabel. She follows suit, climbing up to sit on the back of the couch. Neither of them like that they can’t get close to each other, but Dipper’s sure they can fix it. “Yeah, this jerk summoned him to steal something from Stan’s mind so we used a spell from the Journal to chase after him and get him out. And then we beat him up!”

“With kittens and laser eyes!” Mabel exclaims and the sound of her shout helps settle a good bit of Dipper’s anxiety. She throws her hands up as she makes an explosion sound with her mouth before wincing and clutching her stomach. She waves away Stan when he moves to stand and go to her. It’s a bit, Dipper can tell, but no one has ever been better at hiding away nasty emotions than Mabel. “I’m fine, just still…icky. But yeah! Why can’t we use the spell again?”

Ford says nothing, just stands and disappears in the direction of the stairs. Stan runs his hand through his hair and he keeps glancing over at where his brother went then back between Dipper and Mabel. With a sigh, he sinks into the spot on the couch Ford had been taking up. “…kids, you know this is all really weird for me, right? This is really not how I imagined seeing Ford again.” He shakes his head. “Sh—oot, this has to be way worse for you two, forget about me. How are you two holding up?”

Another wave anxiety; Mabel gives him a shaky grin that he does his best to return. “Nothing the Mystery Twins can’t handle, right?” he laughs when she holds out her fist despite the distance between them. He mimes bumping his against hers and they both pull back with fake explosion sounds. Even if they can’t be in physical contact, he still has Mabel with him and that makes things much better. “We’ve beat Bill before, we can do it again.”

“Yeah! And this time Bill has two sets of Mystery Twins to deal with! Original track and the better, hip remix!” she throws her arms around Stan’s neck and tries to rub her cheek against his before pulling back with an upset sound. “Your face is so scratchy, Younkle Stan. You need to shave. Both you and Younkle Ford look like you’ve glued porcupines to your faces.”

“I don’t have time to shave; there are more important things to do.” Ford says as he returns with his arms full. Dipper takes a moment to be proud that Ford shares his sentiment; that’s why he never does laundry unless Grunkle Stan makes him. The he sees what’s in Ford’s arms and he’s anxious all over again, fingers twitching with the want to grab Mabel’s hand.

Ford drops the candles and, filling Dipper with dread, a large amount of rope onto the coffee table. His face is screwed up in concentration. He opens and closes his mouth a few times before disappearing again. This time when he comes back, he’s got two chairs from the kitchen. Dipper knows what they’re going to have to do but the idea of it still makes his stomach clench.

Grab Mabel and run. There’s still time.

He shakes his head, trying to block out the voice.

Stan picks up one of the candles, tilting it this way and that. “…this cannot be serious. This is some crap that Ma would tell one of her stupid customers to do. What else we gonna do, burn sage? Read some Psalms and blow a ram’s horn?”

“I’m afraid traditional exorcism rituals have no effect on this creature. I uncovered this spell written in the cave where I first summoned Bill and—” Ford blinks before scowling as he seems to catch onto Stan’s sarcasm. He snatches the candle from Stan’s fingers. “I know what I’m doing, Stanley. We just have to put them to sleep and recite the spell.”

Dipper’s stomach twists at the idea of sleeping again, at the dreams that split his mind when he tried to remember them.

Stan looks completely unimpressed with the idea. “And what if they go all yellow eyes again?”

Ford holds up one end of the rope, “That’s what the rope is for.”

Stan opens his mouth, probably to argue against tying up children, but thankfully Mabel jumps off the couch and stands between them. “Haha! Great! Lets do this! No time to argue, there’s triangles to beat up! Right, Dipper? Younkle Ford, we gotta put the candles in a circle, right? I’ll help!” she grabs Ford’s hand and a handful of candles, pulling him to the side to start clearing out a corner of the living room.

Dipper nods, “And Stan! You’re great with knots so we can get the chairs ready!” he tugs Stan by the hand over to the chair, ignoring his uncle’s questioning ‘triangle?’ comment.

It takes fifteen minutes to clear the space, set up the candles, and tie the two of them to the chairs despite Stan’s protests. Dipper’s legs are bound to the chair’s, left arm pinned to his side and right arm free. It’s not the most uncomfortable thing ever, probably thanks to the blanket Stan had insisted in wrapping him in before tying him up. Rope burns could be a pain, apparently. Dipper didn’t want to think about how Stan knew the most comfortable ways to be tied up; none of the answers his brain tried to supply before he shut them down were particularly pleasant. Half made him afraid for his uncle, half made him have war flashbacks to the romance novel Grenda had read when he’d been trapped in Mabel’s body. Mabel was similarly bound, her chair cattycorner from his. They just had to reach out and they could shake hands. Dipper had to crush the urge. Not until Ford was ready.

“You doing okay, sweetheart? The ropes aren’t too tight, are they, kid?” Stan keeps fussing, keeps checking his knots.

“Yep!” Mabel grins at the same time Dipper assures Stan that he’s fine.

Ford finishes lighting the last candle and shakes out the match. He smiles at Dipper and Dipper gets a warm ember in his chest when he gets six fingers ruffling his hair. Mabel gets the same treatment. “I don’t know if this’ll work, but you kids are awfully brave.” His voice is warm before he clears his throat. He pulls a pair of cuffs out of his pocket; not the silver kind that police use but big iron ones like out of some medieval story. They’ve got a bunch of blue symbols glowing in the medal.

Stan lets out a laugh. “Holy crap, Stanford, what are those? Props from your nerd board game?” he takes them from Ford, twisting them around. “What have you been doing all these years? Oh god, do you have a dungeon in your basement or something?”

Ford huffs and snatches them back, “I’ve been working, Stanley. These will ensure that they don’t escape while we’re in their mindscapes. Watch. Dipper, can I see your arm?”

The metal is surprisingly warm against his skin; the symbols glow brighter once the cuff is snapped shut. Dipper takes note that there’s no keyhole on the cuff as his body seems to lock up. He tries to flex his fingers; it takes nearly five seconds for his fingers to twitch. Every thought of movement seems delayed in reaching his body. It’s like he’s been dunked into a pool full of honey, slow and sticky.

Ford clasps the other cuff to Mabel’s arm and Dipper sees her tense, watches the slow way she grins and laughs at the odd feeling. They’re cuffed together but still Ford has to slot their hands together. He sees his fingers lace with his sister’s before he feels it, everything on a delay. Something warm travels up his arm from the contact, a spark traveling through his veins. His left eye stings and waters. Both widen when he sees Mabel blink once before she’s staring back at him with mismatching eyes, one familiar and terrifying.

He wants to scream, wants to tell his Grunkles that this was a bad idea. He wants out; he doesn’t want to do this anymore. This is too much. He doesn’t want to see that look on his sister’s face. Her face spreads into a different kind of grin, lips curling up to show off as many teeth as possible, and he feels his own cheeks aching as he does the same.

“MISSED ME ALREADY?” They say in unison.

Dipper screams in his head. He didn’t say that; he can’t move, he can’t speak.

He’s trapped.

hadin�Y�� 

[artforinfinity]

So.... uhhh them

Calling this the timetrap au!

[artsycrapfromsai]

did a Timetrapped AU doodle

this is an idea i have for when the twins are reunited. Ford hears a knock on the door, cautiously opens it with Dipper also peeking out, Mabel and Dipper see each other, and Mabel tackles Dipper and they’re hugging and laughing and smiling.

Stan looks on happy for them, but also longingly b/c he wants the same thing for him and Ford, while Ford sorta just silently watches them, unsure and conflicted about his own feelings