Malam and Bella Saltzman today! I was super excited to draw Malam lit in firelight but swallowed by darkness. I basically drew Bella as a woman-shaped void in the world, not so much a presence in her own right but haunting the narrative none the less.
Ever thought about a werewolf Ford? Either pre-portal or post-portal (like her got the lycanthropy curse in the multiverse) and Stan is now dealing with a big dog every full moon.
AAAAWWWW buddy. The stans and werewolf AUs. They haunt me.
First up, ive had a Werewolf STAN AU ive had on the back burner since. Like. December of last year, and there are a couple fics i read and reread constantly that involve a shifter sort of Wolf Ford
(A Stan's Best Friend by @eeveelotions and Double Cursed by @dark-lord-of-awesomeness are my two faves, I love them SO MUCH)
But WEREWOLF FORD. Oh man
Cause here's the thing (now you've done it)
Ford would love being a Werewolf.
None of this "i must sequester myself away, im a monster" type shit. No. Ford is over the moon excited.
Listen, it was definitely a poor decision on his part to approach the pack of werewolves traveling through the woods outside his house, but he was over the moon (HA) about seeing werewolves up close and he sort of. Forgot. That they could be dangerous. Whoops.
All in all it was a simple misunderstanding and they were very apologetic about the bite, but mistakes were made and the next month, Ford transformed.
And it was wonderful.
Oh the transformation itself is more painful than Ford could ever have imagined, and the disorientation, the confusion he experiences when he wakes up buck ass naked in his yard after the night of the full moon is...unpleasant, but being a werewolf? It's wonderful.
Ford has enhanced senses now. Before, when he had to rely on sight and meticulously combed for clues to hunt down anomalies, now he can simply follow on scent or some other instinct alone. He can see better the glasses more for show than anything else and his night vision is phenomenal. He's fast, both in reflexes and on foot and, well. Ford's never been strong, that's not something he's ever been, but now he is. He can walk through the woods at night and feel only a sense of respectable fear. The addition of werewolf traits have made him stronger in both body and in confidence, Ford feels that he's settled into this life perfectly, slotted the lycanthropy right alongside the Polydactyly in terms of What Makes Him Weird and it fits just fine.
He's happy. Life isn't boring, and it isnt a constant dread of fearing the next moon, its a give and a take and for the first time in a very long time it feels right.
Two years. Twenty four moons, (and adding one blue moon coming up, for good measure) Ford isn't a seasoned werewolf by any means, but he's confident. He knows what to expect, how to deal, and, best of all, he is 88.33333% percent sure that he's never eaten a person OR someone's pet. He's doing great!
And then. Then he gets a call from his Ma.
Oh its nothing bad, its one of her bi monthly check ins that Ford has very subtly shifted so they only occur before the moon, to manage his grumpyness levels. His Ma is talking, listing off how the shop and Pa are doing, how Shermie and his Wife are, and then she slips in one sentence, just, "Oh and I heard from Stanley recently, he's in Nevada! Very close by, you should talk to him. Anyway-"
And Ford doesn't hear the last bit of her sentence because the wolf in his chest shifts.
The thing about being a werewolf is that the whole "inner wolf" shit is all metaphorical. Obviously, Ford couldn't house a wolf in his chest his ribcage isn't big enough, but also the Change isn't like a possession, it isn't like the Wolf he changes into isn't still Ford.
It's just. A little different. Less logical. More emotionally driven-instinct driven. Its basic anomaly biology, Ford's studied it for years.
But when his Ma mentions his twin brother for the first time in years, and when she says hes close by, Ford is reminded very strongly that wolves,
Are pack animals.
They are very social. Pack. Animals.
And after he finishes the call with his Ma, Ford looks around and realizes that he- that the wolf in his chest, no one else- is very, very lonely.
Gravity Falls is a wonderful place to be. But it is missing something.
And a few days later, Ford sits himself on his back porch, gobbles down the last of a hearty sandwich and lets the Transformation take over.
And then he wakes up, flat on his back, buck ass naked,
In a desert.
Fuck.
Ford steals some clothes from a clothesline after about three miles of walking and following a dirt road. Luckily no one passed him, in his naked, angrily muttering state, but still. The humiliation of it.
Hes never woken up so far. The Wolf learned fairly quickly that traveling too far away from home meant a long, embarrassing walk back, and especially after a full moon, that would mean nor eating or sleeping for hours. Most commonly Ford wakes up in his yard or very close to his house, and can shake off a full moon night fairly quickly.
It takes him two entire days to hitchhike back to Gravity Falls. Ford is, to put it mildly, absolutely pissed off.
He woke up two hundred miles from his house. Two hundred.
Worst of all, he woke up in Nevada.
Pack. The Wolf whispers. Ford tells it to shut up.
The next month he wakes up the exact same way. Hundreds of miles from home. In Nevada.
Ford actual does lock himself in his own basement the next month. Fortunately the wolf can't open password secured doors, which means when Ford wakes his throat is sore from howling and there are scratches all over the walls.
He does the same thing for three more months, locking himself in an uncomfortable basement, before he decides that the whole thing must have passed, and hes safe to go out again.
He wakes up in Nevada again.
This time, he's closer to a town. This time, after Ford has successfully robbed a laundromat blind and made away with pants and an ill fitting shirt (with no money, no id, nothing) this time he makes the mistake of walking past a diner on his way to the main road to start hitch hiking.
He catches a glimpse of himself in the reflection.
And then he realizes its not a reflection.
Stanley Pines is sitting in the restaurant, looking the other way, completely unaware.
And suddenly the pieces click. Why The Wolf has been barreling this way, what its searching for, what it wants.
Ford runs away like a little bitch.
Hes in a stolen shirt and pants that are too big cut him some slack.
Hes aware he could ask Stan for help, perhaps a ride up to Oregon, but that would require two things. Conversations and Explanations, neither of which Ford is willing to sit through.
He hitch hikes out of town, and twice, dives into bushes to avoid suspicious red looking cars.
Ford locks himself in the basement again. And again. The Wolf mourns, howls and thrashes but Ford will not, under any circumstances, let it escape.
The Wolf escapes.
And that is how Stan pines startles awake in the middle of a moonlit night to Something standing just outside of his car, dark brown and shaggy fur and panting, teeth filled mouth and eyes that stare.
