the recent succumbing ask made me think - yeah well a catnapping wouldn’t happen there but what if it did elsewhere?
especially since some of your Cat Stan shorts revolve around the 2012 after everything is purrrfect again
Bzzt! The Little Dipper Episode (Gideon kidnaps the twins :) by overhearing something :) about a magical arti-cat :) )
Yes Gideon may not be a straight up evil child - but he definitely is on the DARK gray side of morally grey
but like - he somehow gets the collar
and you gotta keep that kitty somewhere it wouldn’t escape right? Especially a kitty with about human intelligence
somewhere that may be a bit dark and enclosed to stop escapades (=a very quiet kitty!)
no collar = no tracking = no human = vulnerable Stan = ford freakout
Thankfully for everyone by the time Gideon rolled around that wouldn't be an issue they'd be dealing with anymore. Succumbing was a side effect of Stan losing his identity and giving into his cat curse as he gave up being Stan in favor of being Nikola. The first year or so he'd slide back every time he became a cat, but over thirty years his sense of self would be solid enough that Ford wouldn't panic every time Stan stole something.
Unfortunately Stan still does have severe claustrophobia, and Gideon is a flavor of evil most children learn to suppress, so there very much is a scenario of Gideon catnapping Stan, ditching his collar and shoving him in a box with holes poked in while wearing a muzzle. Which wouldn't lead him to succumbing but would trigger a panic attack and dissociative episode when he wasn't let out right away.
And that does lead to a Ford freakout! As he can't find his brother, can't find his cat, the collar leads to a ditch, and Gideon gets way too smug about something while hinting things under his breath and acts like a creep.
Its not too hard to put things together, but somehow Ford still misses the obvious before the kids point it out for him. Then its Stan rescue, Stan cuddles, and Gideon gets arrested for animal cruelty.