“Thank you, mistah Wizad” Stan thanked Fiddleford politely as he took the item he chose from the Mystery shack. Although he didn't know where ‘Mr Wizard’ came from, he decided it was far too cute to correct.
“You are very welcome, son” he smiled ruffling his head one last time before those feisty tiny hands smacked his hand away again.
“You are not my pa”
“Excuse me?” Fiddleford blinked at the offended expression on the small boy. He quickly glanced at his friend who looked just as clueless, if not pouty that the boy hadn't given him any attention.
“Mr Mcgucket?” Soos’ voice carried over from the other room and Fiddleford watched the small boy tense abnormally. It wasn’t odd that a child this young would feel shy, even if it is a younger version of the brash man Stan… Still…
The way the boy froze in place didn’t seem like the usual timid kind.
“Is Mr Pines and other Mr Pines here?” Soos asked just as he opened the door. It didn’t take long for his searching eyes to fall on the boy before him.
In hindsight, Fiddleford should have warned Soos about the predicament Stan Pines had found himself in. He couldn’t help but blame himself when the boy immediately dropped his new gift and crouched down like a snail hiding in its shell.
“Stanley!” Stanford called, rushing to the boy's side. The poor thing curled up, covering his ears and hiding his face in his knees.
“Stanford wait-”
“Stanley! Stanley, what's wrong?” Stanford did not wait, attempting to force the boy away from the little safe hidey-hole by tugging his hands away and trying to pull his face away from his knees which ended up in-
“Ow!” He pulled back, looking at his hand in shock as a clear bitemark (with missing teeth) was now on his hand.
Fiddleford had a vague feeling this would all go further downhill, he needed to get the young-Stan away from behind commotion, from Ford's look of disbelief that's changing and from Soos who is probably too big and intimidating for the little boy.
Just as the boy began to groan quietly, a humming sort of keen, Stanford took a deep breath that had been most likely gearing up with more scolding but thankfully was interrupted as Soos’ heavy footsteps approached.
Without much of a word, the man sat in front of the boy, keeping a bit of distance, and Fiddleford quickly approached to drag his fuming friend away.
“You saw that, didn't you?!” Ford demanded, looking up at him as he was dragged from the floor and shoving the bitten hand in his face. Fiddleford should really have a good talk with him.
“You did that to yourself, you old fool!” he scolded, tugging on his ear so he'd give lil-Stan some space.
“Wh-”
“Quiet”
===
Eventually, with Mr McGucket managing the other Mr Pines to quiet down, the boy in the gifts hope stopped moaning sadly and carefully pulled his hands away from the mess of curls and his ears.
A moment later, Soos was met with a reddened face and a confused expression.
“Hey” he greeted with a smile. The boy blinked back.
“I scared you pretty badly, huh?”
The boy nodded
“Sorry dude” he apologised, hoping it was enough.
The boy sniffled, staring at him for a long time and just blinking. Soos hears the moment the other..well- Dr Pines opens his mouth to speak but from the corner of his eye he can see Mr McGucket slap a hand over his mouth.
“Your hat is funny” the voice is small but it carries judgement, Soos can't help but laugh.
“Yeah, it is pretty funny, huh?” He fixes the fez on his head, straightening it. The boy nods.
“My pa has a hat like that”
“Yeah? Your pa must be pretty cool then, dude” Soos smiles but it slowly fades as the boy shakes his head. Huh… he remembered being that age and thinking his own biological father to be cool despite his many absences. Maybe this kid is just a natural born hater.
“...you wanna try wear it?” He offers anyway and can't help grin at how the boy immediately nods his head rapidly.
Getting up, Soos approaches the kid carefully, afraid to scare him again, but the boy seems far too focused on the fez being placed upon his head to care.
“Aww” Mcgucket and Dr Pines coo and Soos chuckles as he watches the fez tip sideways, far too big for the kid's head.
“It stinks” the boy wacks the little tail of the fez and wipes his nose with the back of his hand a moment later. His legs, which had been pulled tightly close to his chest, now sprawled out.
“Does it? Huh, never noticed” Soos says, watching how the kid just whips his head side to side to watch the tail of the fez whip around “you sure it's not you who stinks?”
“No!” The kid giggles, face brightening with mischief “You stink!”
“No, dude. We stink” he says humbly, giving the mystery kid a poke.
And the boy squeals with laughter.
It isn't until later that they make it inside the house that Soos gets updated on the situation. Suddenly, his hands shake as he holds what is Mr Pines in his arms.
“Really dudes?!” He eyes both men and then the boy, who is Mr Pines, in his hold. The boy, Mr Pines, holds onto his shirt and seems happy to have the fez over his eyes, still whipping his head side to side to feel the tail wack.
“Yes, I am afraid so… dude” Dr Pines sighs, entering the kitchen and stopping abruptly when he sees Melody already there, cooking and definitely taking a bite or two from the cooking food.
“Oh!” She brightens at the sight of them before her eyes zero in on the young-Mr Pines in his arms “Oh!!”
From one blink to another, Melody is suddenly in front of him, gushing over how adorable Mr baby Pines is, which is true, Soos nods along. She talks to him, voice high pitched, and she coos when baby Pines pulls the fez up from his eyes to curiously look at who is speaking.
“And who is this adorable little girl?” She asks with glee, wiggling her finger in front of baby-Pines who just looks confusedly at it.
“Melody, he isn't-”
“I'm Susie!!” Baby Pines suddenly declares, throwing both arms up.
“Susie!!” Melody gushes, immediately stealing ‘Susie’ from Soos “My! What a pretty princess you are, Susie!!”
“Wha- he is not a girl!” Dr Pines tries to step in but it's clear Melody doesn't hear him “Stanley-!”
Melody hugs baby-Pines tight and she turns the heat down from the stove to give him her devout attention, she plays with his hair and playfully tickles him. The kitchen is suddenly filled with coos and giggles.
“Hehe lady, lady! I have a secret” baby-Pines snickers and motions for Melody to come closer.
Seeming to be wrapped around ‘Susie's finger, Melody does so, allowing baby-Pines to whisper in her ear in that way kids do when they don't really know how to whisper quietly, hands clumsily covering his lips.
“I'm not a girl”
“WHAT?!” Melody overly exaggerates her shock, pulling back with a gasp.
“Yeah!” Baby-Pines giggles “I lied!!”
“Susie, you're a boy?!”
“No!!” And the squeal is loud, baby-Pines nearly falls off her arms as he leans back with a fit of giggles, face red and feet kicking “My name isn't Susie, silly! It's Stan!”
“Stan?”
Finally sensing something was off, Melody looks away from the child in her arms to look at the other ‘Stan’ in the room. A look of confusion and worry crosses her face before she looks to Soos.
Sensing his girl needed some reassuring, Soos smiled, watching her features soften just the slightest as she returned it.
With all the wriggling, Melody had no choice but to put the boy down. She watched him run back to Soos, snickering and hiding behind his leg with a mischievous look in his eye.
Stan listens and takes the journal, and decides to do the first worthwhile thing in his life. There is no I.D on him at his death, only a note that requests the journal be taken with him to the grave.
Stanley Pines is laid to rest nameless, in a random cemetery in a random town that has no meaning to him. The journal is put in the casket with him.
True to his word, Stan buries his brother’s journal where no one will find it.
Thinking... Think that Ford, after getting better and banning Bill from his mind. He wants to see his brother again.nmaybe to even apologize for such rashness and explain on his part,n how it was a life or dest situation. But he asks his ma, and she hasn't received calls from in months/years. And it devolves from there
He puts everything into research, missing posters, going to gas stations within a 50 mile radius and showing a picture of his brother (it's hard to do that, having no picture of his disheveled brother, and he even tries to draw him from memory...did he always look that skinny????)
He eventually settles on the mailbox, and he asks 'wheres my brother's and the mailbox responds with said town, and he goes almost immediately. And he looks everywhere.
Ouogh yeah. Imagine Ford tries tracking spells, but he doesn’t have anything of Stan’s to use for the spell, and using his own DNA doesn’t get him any results. It strikes him then how he has nothing of Stan except old pictures of their childhood. He knows nothing of the man Stan became beyond that one night where he saw him, gave him the journal, and sent him away again.
So Ford throws himself into more research, trying to find Stan, or even a hint of him. It’s hard to get anything, because Stan used so many different names and identities. (And why, Ford wonders, did his brother need so many?)
Eventually he goes to the mailbox and looks where it says, but he can’t find him. So Ford goes back to the mailbox, demanding why it lied. Asks for more details.
The mailbox tells him his brother fulfilled Ford’s wishes, and buried the journal where no one would find it.
Something to consider is that being buried nameless isn't that common. Usually an unknown Doe would be left in an mortuary for a bit while any kin were searched for and then they'd be cremated. Someone cared to pay for a plot. Someone cared to have some kind of plaque, but regardless some one read that note and cared enough to respect a strangers last wishes.
I imagine after years of searching Ford finds this random town but narrowing down a grave is difficult. Folks tell him there's only one person who would have cared enough to do something like that and he goes to them, begging to know which grave belongs to his brother.
"please, I just need to know where he is"
They're rocking in an old porch chair, cigarettes littering the ground around them and they take a hard look at Ford. And they think back to that note, that letter with all that unknown mans sad apologies and a last pleading wish to be buried with the journal. They have it in a box with all their other important things, things that they never want to forget. "He didn't even sign his name on that note he left. I think that says more about you than it does about him."
And they go back inside, leaving ford with no answers.
See my thinking had gone “what if Stan dug his own grave and made his own grave marker so that his grave couldn’t be found” which I dismissed with “nah because who would bury him? He can’t put the dirt back on top of himself”
Then “what if Stan really did travel to the ends of the earth and just died somewhere far away from civilization and some random person found his body and decided to give him dignity bury him right there?” which. Nah that wouldn’t work well either.
To “what if he died in a town and left a note so they’d bury him with the journal” which I thought. Mmm usually they just cremate John Does and do the bare minimum. But I’ll disregard that because I want him buried in a casket.
So I LOVE this idea of a mysterious benefactor. Fixes the plot holes I couldn’t fill. Just someone with a good heart who has sympathy on this young man who had nothing but a note pleading for his last wishes to be honoured.
Maybe this person is an older man or woman who is the first to have found Stan’s body. After notifying police, their heart goes out to Stan. When he isn’t claimed by any family, they take him and treat him like he was their own son, providing a casket and a plot and a gravestone. Making sure his last wishes are honoured.
So of course this person has some judgement about Ford when he eventually comes around. Doesn’t he know it’s been years? He never bothered showing up when his brother first passed. He wasn’t there for the funeral they held for his brother, being the only person there, and not even knowing this young man’s name but still saying a few words over him as he was laid to rest.
They refuse to tell Ford. And Ford gets angry.
Really it’s guilt he feels, guilt and a deep mourning. But it’s easier to be angry than sad, so Ford directs all his feelings into a cold fury at this person who won’t tell him his brother’s grave.
And then Ford goes into the cemetery at night and decides to dig up every unmarked, nameless, John Doe there until he finds his brother. Stan was buried with the journal, after all. So if Ford finds the journal he’ll know that body is Stan’s, regardless of how decayed it may or may not be.
Grave robber Ford basically lol. He refuses to leave Stan buried in a random town with no name, so he takes Stan’s body and casket and everything with him to bury Stan in a “proper” grave in Gravity Falls.
They had been keeping their eye on that mystery science man who claimed to be that unknown man's brother. A little bit of digging and he found out Stanford Pines was some scientist with numerous accolades to his name. The sheriff told them that the guy was now suspected of grave robbing.
"What, Ed Gein style or summ'at?" They said.
"Naw, just messing around really. He ain't took nothing, matter 'a fact he leave the grave better than he found it."
So they resolved to drag their aching bones to the cemetery tonight.
You've got one weird brother there son. Though they chided themselves, after all this time they had a name to attached to that young boy that they just mentally dubbed 'son' and they should use it.
They didn't know why Stanford had bothered pestering all the graves of the unknown folk. Where was he when the sheriff was looking for that boy's family? Where was he when they took clothes outta their own closet so that poor boy had something nicer to wear before he was closed up in a casket? Where was this brother when the only person standing over a fresh grave was some old stranger and the town pastor?
They grumbled and cursed everything they could think of as they walked down to the cemetery (he planned to send a letter to the city about moving the parking closer because this was ridiculous).
"You keep this up an' they gonna send you to lock up," they said to Stanford Pines, who was chest deep in the grave of John Doe ?- 21 September 1984 Though Unknown We Hope You Rest Well and Have Found Peace.
Stanford screamed and whirled, wielding his shovel like a weapon.
"Real threatening there son, yer four foot deep in a six foot hole tryin' t' threaten a 79 year old," they said with an eye roll.
"You-!" Stanford growled but was easily pushed back by the cane pressing on his shoulder.
"I'm here t' tell you to quit it with this shit. Not a single one a' these unknown souls is yer brother."
"You could be lying. I don't have a single reason to trust you," he growled.
"Yeah? Me neither," they spat. The two stared at each other, a real standoff. It was actually kinda funny. Here was a young man, half in a grave, and some old fucker standing over him.
"Tell me about him," they said breaking the silence.
Stanford's face contorted in a vicious snarl, "You don't deserve to know anything about him."
They laughed, "yeah? Something tells me that I know more than you, and that you don't know shit." and they could see the words cut. They dug into their pocket and threw a tiny bundle that bounced off Stanfords chest and he scrambled for it.
"I bought it at the police auction, been keepin' it locked up. Once you understand you come back and apologize and maybe I'll be generous enough t' tell you where his grave is."
Stanford Pines was never going to find that grave. One of the things about coming from a generation of farmers, lots of them got their own private family cemeteries.
They had spent much of their life tying toe tags on boys in 'Nam. Going through piles of paperwork to make sure each and every body they could retrieve got the chance to go home. And when no one came for that boy they couldn't help but think of all those bodies they couldn't bring home. Mothers, fathers, daughters, sons, brothers, and sisters who wailed for somebody, anybody please could they just bring their baby home? It was the final crack in their old soul, and they promised that cold body, if ain't nobody gonna bring you home, then sonny boy you've got one in me.
Maybe Stanford would understand what they did when they read that sad note. Maybe Stanford would understand why the journey of his life took his brother. That beat up red car told the story of a man unwritten. Told everything but his name sadly. It had been stripped of its plates but not the wear and tear. Hopefully Stanford would understand before they died and occupied the last empty plot on his family's cemetery.
Ford having beef with a 79 year old lol. At least they’re pretty chill about his grave desecration. Though to be fair, Ford’s coming across as a grief stricken feral gremlin man so. Let him at it. He won’t find Stan anyway 😭😭😭
And the car?? Giving Ford means to see Stan’s old car and the evidence of the life Stan had been living? Uuogh 😭 Imagine Ford coming to the conclusion that his sending Stan away was the last straw to break the camel’s back. He sent his brother to his death, and he can’t deal with that knowledge well.
The cuddle bug: an other-dimensional sickness, one that presents with flu-like symptoms and mental distress unless the afflicted individual is in physical contact with another person, which calms the sickness. Treatment is consistent and prolonged physical contact with another to aid in recovery.
Two possible scenarios:
Ford contracts the cuddle bug during his time dimension hopping, and comes down with the illness shortly after Stan successfully reopens the portal and brings him back home. Ford is aware of what the cuddle bug is after having encountered it before, but is hesitant to tell his family about it.
Eventually, Dipper notices Ford getting sicker and sicker, and manages to get the truth out of him. Dipper then offers to help Ford get better, and also tells Mabel. Mabel is always down for cuddles and willing to help, but sees an opportunity to get her uncles to bridge the gap between them.
So Mabel tells Stan, who doesn’t believe her at first. He’s only convinced once he sees the proof of how ill Ford has gotten, and Mabel and Dipper work to convince Stan to help Ford get better. Stan is against it and Ford is against it, but the kids are persistent. And in the end, Stan would do just about anything for his brother.
Cue family cuddle pile to ease Ford’s symptoms and help him recover from the illness.
OR
Ford contracts the cuddle bug not long after he begins exploring Gravity Falls. At first, he has no idea what the illness is, because it can’t be found outside of Gravity Falls. He slowly gets sicker and sicker and medications are not helping. It’s a gnome or some anomaly that eventually informs him about the cuddle bug.
Ford theorizes the bug is an other-dimensional sickness that slipped between the cracks into Gravity Falls. Hearing about what the apparent cure for the illness is makes him scoff. Surely he doesn’t need to cuddle with anyone to get over it. That part is probably made up.
Except he gets sicker. And sicker. And his mental health deteriorates. He can’t work in his condition, and despite all his studying about the bug, Ford has not found any sort of cure. Growing desperate to get better, Ford finally caves and decides to try the physical contact route.
Except he doesn’t know anyone in town, and the one friend he made in university just got married. He debates calling his mother, but she’d never be able to come out to Gravity Falls on her own, his father would come with her. Ford does not want Filbrick to find out about any of this.
Really, in the end, there was only ever one person Ford would be willing to call about such an issue. It ends up being really not that difficult to get Stan to agree to come see him.
Stan is highly skeptical about this “cuddle bug” sickness Ford tells him about, but he hopes this could be a chance to reconcile with his brother. And it does turn out that way, after lots of arguing and yelling and cuddling. Ford finally starts to recovery with the physical contact, and their relationship starts to recover as well.
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