I'm currently working on writing a fanfiction for a gravity falls AU where Fiddleford stayed the leader of the cult Society of the Blind Eye, and where Ford becomes his most dedicated worshiper. I'm calling it "Becoming the Cult Leader's Favorite," or BCLF. @al3xartist gave me the title. I know the name is kinda cutesy and funny, but I plan for the actual fic to be very angsty, yippee!! Don't worry though, I plan to give it a happy ending. It has Fiddauthor as a pretty big part of it, but it's not the main point.
Would you read it?
yes
no
Voting ended onOct 30, 2024
I'm gonna publish it on Ao3 even if this poll is 100% no. I'm just making this post because I'm going absolutely feral thinking about it, and I need other people to know that this is in my head.
I've just posted four more chapters of Becoming the Cult Leader's Favorite! If you're interested in seeing the outlines of the chapters, they're below the cut. There are only the ones that I've already published, so you don't have to worry about spoilers.
There are a lot of points that seem pretty nonsensical because I didn't plan on publishing this, I just wrote it so I could keep track of plot points and stuff. Also, I was sick when I wrote most of this, and it made my brain all sticky, so there's some silly stuff too.
Prologue: Testing My Hypothesis
Fiddleford wakes up, it’s the day of the portal incident. It’s February and there’s snow on the windowsill. He wanders around the house and finds Ford in the kitchen, making breakfast, acting very jittery and excited. They talk about how he’s excited to test the portal, and Fiddleford is nervous. They test the portal and Fiddlford gets sucked through. He sees Bill removing his exoskeleton and eating, and he is very disturbed. He and Ford get into an argument and Fiddleford leaves.
Chapter 1: Did You Lose Yourself? (It’s Always in the Last Place that You’d Check)
This chapter mostly shows readers what Fiddleford’s life has been like since he left Ford. He has a bedroom and kitchen, etc, (pretty much just an entire house) that is hidden from the rest of the SBE members because he wants them to think he’s either a god or that he has a strong connection with a god. He’s afraid the illusion might be broken if people find out he needs food, rest, and other human things. It’s like a secret bunker within his secret bunker, and he thinks it’s funny to call it his double bunker.
It’s been two weeks since the portal incident. Fiddleford now has a scar on his temple from the excessive use of the memory gun. He has an inner monologue about how he’s starting to think there are problems with using the gun on himself, and how he thinks he should stop. He’s built a secret bunker (or something) for the SBE to work in, and he lives in it. It’s in the cave behind the waterfall, seen in season one, episode two. The place is decorated with a lot of red and gold, and the hallways are winding and labyrinthian because Fiddleford had already begun to lose his mind a little while designing it. He wakes up around three in the morning, showers, eats breakfast, and does whatever else he needs to do. He tinkers around with some invention prototypes for a few minutes, then puts on his cult-leader robe and sneaks out of the double bunker. He wanders around the SBE base and greets some of the other members. He goes to the ceremony room (fancy name for where he zaps people’s brains out) and meets with Ivan. They chat for a bit, talking about their plans for the day. They have kind of a creepy fun-house mirror version of a father-and-son relationship. They talk about how they're running low on supplies, and they decide to head into town and buy new stuff.
Chapter 2: It’s Sure to be a Story I Can Tell in Purgatory
(Starts at the same time as Chapter One)
Stanford wakes up in a ditch on the side of the interstate, covered in cuts and bruises, at around three in the morning. He’s pretty sure a few of his ribs are broken. He looks like absolute hell. He’s covered in dirt and blood, both his own and that of various forest animals. There’s a note stuck to his hand, safety-pinned to the webbing between his thumb and index finger. It’s from Bill, telling him the pain will stop when Ford lets him through the portal, into Gravity Falls. Once he’s able to get up, he starts heading back home, and he stops at a coffee shop or something. The people in there all give him strange looks. He orders some cutesy girly drink that is highly caffeinated, chugs it, and leaves. As he’s walking around town, trying to get back home, he hears rumors about a god who lives by the lake that can remove unwanted things from the mind. He considers this, thinking about how things went the first time he trusted an otherworldly being and weighs the risks of asking this rumored god to help with the whole Bill situation. Eventually, he thinks things can’t get much worse, and decides to try. He heads toward the lake, finds the cave behind the waterfall, and wanders there for a little while. He does something that makes noise, idk, and Fiddleford, who is getting ready to head to town, hears him and approaches him.
Chapter 3: Compared to That, I’m Doing Well
Fiddleford freaks out over the state Ford is in; he’s covered in blood, and his skin is so pale it’s almost translucent. He looks like he could pass out at any moment and never wake up. Ford starts freaking out too because what do you mean his best friend of over ten years is secretly also a god? Fiddleford decides to send Ivan into town alone, staying back himself in favor of keeping Ford alive, guiding him inside, and sitting him down in a cafeteria-type room. They talk about what happened after Fiddleford left, and Ford tells him everything about Bill and asks him to get rid of Bill, and Fiddleford says he’ll try.
Chapter 4: I Don’t Remember How I Forgot Myself
Fiddleford builds a device, based heavily on the memory ray, only this time it’s designed to help with the removal of anything that’s not supposed to be in the mind and doesn’t have much of an effect on memories. Fiddleford tells Ford about potential side effects, explaining to him that he doesn’t know what exactly it can do. He says it might give him brain cancer. It still can erase memories, but not as precisely. Fiddleford uses it on Ford, and it cuts the connection between Ford and Bill, and he starts to feel like he can breathe freely for the first time in years. When he first let Bill in, he was too excited about getting to work side by side with an otherworldly god, and he didn’t realize how much space Bill took up in his mind. With Bill gone, he feels lighter. Being rescued like this, being severed from Bill, he feels euphoric, and that, on top of the fact that he was already a little nuts, makes him think Fiddleford was heaven-sent, and he joins the SBE and quickly becomes the most devout member. Fiddleford makes him his right-hand man, and Ivan is angry about being replaced.
Chapter 5: I Might Find Myself by Retracing My Steps
This chapter outlines what life is like now that Bill is gone and addresses important plot points.
Fiddleford wakes up in his double bunker and heads over to the dorm-ish section of the SBE base to see Ford. They meet up, and they go to the cafeteria to have breakfast together (Gayness intensifies *Boss Music*). They go to the ceremony room to do cult stuff, and Ivan is there. He acts nice when Fiddleford is watching, but once he turns his back, Ivan starts bickering with Ford, trying to convince him to leave, to step down, etc. Ford refuses. Ivan gets mad and leaves. Fiddleford does cult stuff, erasing memories and whatnot, for most of the day. Ford stays by his side the entire time because they’re gay. Woah who said that. At the end of the day, they go to the cafeteria again and eat dinner, then Fiddleford goes back to the double bunker and Ford goes back to the dorm-ish area.
Once Ford is alone in his room, he gets out his journal and starts writing about how he thinks he’s falling in love with Fiddleford. He writes that he feels like there’s something wrong with him, and he feels guilty for liking Fiddleford because he thinks he’s a God for fuck’s sake, and that he, himself, is just another stupid guy. Then he goes to sleep. (The way he’s writing in his diary about a crush, kicking his feet behind him, giggling like a 12-year-old girl. I need to call him a slur.)
