parallel stans stangst… this was actually rly fun despite the fact it almost made me cry (these guys make me emotional okay) also this is super rough hopefully ill get around to doing proper lines and adding colour
more bbau stuff for @ferretwhomst (: (i rly hope u like this i have no clue if this is what u envisioned but i tried my best lmao)
Hi, I'm new to Blood Brothers AU and I was curious about it. Can you explain about it or show me where I can see the best explanation about it?
ohhh, dear asker, the rabbit hole i'm about to send you down... >:)
alright let me try and explain it in the most coherent way possible, it's late at night BUT i will try my best!!!
explanation under the cut!
(in general, if you're new to the bb au like this asker and trying to find your way around this overwhelming hell of an au i've concocted, i recommend you start here :D)
wow. i tried SO HARD to make this a semi-concise explanation and YET it somehow turned into a mini-fic in itself towards the end there. sighhh... (lol even still, have fun reading!)
first thing's first i need to tell you aboutttt
The Parallel World / "Better World".
in journal 3, ford mentions visiting a parallel dimension in which stan never pushed him into the portal, and instead took his journal and hid it as ford had requested.
^ some screenshots to give you the basic gist of what's going on in that dimension, everything you need to know for the time being. you can read more about it on internet archive if you like
at some point in august i reread this part of journal 3 and became obsessed with the idea of a parallel dimension. i also noticed that apart from mentioning how he never pushed ford into the portal and took the journal in this world, parallel stan is just... not really brought up. at all.
...which opens up some interesting possibilities.
as you can probably guess, this dimension features in the blood brothers au! in my interpretation, the reason stan was never mentioned is because after leaving with ford's journal, he never came back, just seemingly disappeared off the planet. parallel ford... has not been handling this well (and a certain bastard triangle only serves to play up his worst fears!), and because he has such a large student body to attend to and take care of and protect, he represses his issues, buries them under layers and layers of work and responsibilities. nobody even knows he has a brother...
not even his nephew and niece, dipper and mabel. however, they're observant as all hell. as secretive as ford is, they see past his little white lies, they see how he doesn't eat properly and falls asleep at his desk and laughs nervously when someone asks if he's alright.
(i haven't talked much about the role they play in this au on tumblr, but rest assured i'll be elaborating more on it in my upcoming fic that may come out sometime within... um... the next few months to the next few decades. they're still the same old mystery twins we know and love, except now they've set their sights on figuring out what their grunkle ford is hiding. very Not What He Seems reminiscent)
alright, now that i've mostly covered the parallel world, time to move on to:
The Portal Stan AU
while i was obsessing over the Better World, a parallel dimension/"alternate universe" which already exists in canon, i started thinking about another AU which is fairly popular in the gravity falls fandom: the portal stan AU. in which stan, rather than ford, gets sent into the portal. thought it was a fantastic concept ever since i first saw it, because it opens so many doors for interesting characterization and also some good ol' angst (and later a healing arc, of course).
portal stan has, after all, spent 40 or so years without a solid family base or anyone to care for him. and i can imagine that in those 30 years he spent dimension-hopping, his only thought was to return to his home dimension and see ford again. yes, he was furious and frustrated when they had that last argument, but surely in hindsight he saw how paranoid and jittery ford had been throughout their meeting. he would want to get back and make sure his brother was safe as soon as possible.
and then i had the thought which kicked off this entire au:
what if portal stan fucked up and somehow stumbled upon the parallel dimension while searching for a way home? what if portal stan and parallel ford... MET?
portal stan sees parallel ford and his situation and comes to the conclusion that, without him in the way, ford would flourish. parallel ford sees portal stan and comes to the conclusion that no matter the universe, he somehow manages to destroy stan's life just by being in it. even just knowing that the other exists exacerbates their own insecurities. IT'S SO AWFUL AND SO PERFECT.
also, portal stan couldn't be more desperate to get out of the parallel dimension- partly because he hates the reminder that ford would be better off without him, but mostly because he wants to see his real brother again. however, parallel ford has other plans for him. he's been in denial about the true fate of his own brother for a long time now, but he sees this version of stan and decides he can't afford to let go of him.
(his own mental state is too fragile to accept the idea of losing stan again, even if this isn't his own stan. he already let go of him once after the WCT fiasco, and again after the journal incident. thrice is... thrice is too much.)
you may also be thinking "hey, smart guy, i actually DID read that screenshot you posted above while explaining the parallel dimension. it said parallel ford and fiddleford constructed a little something called a Vortex Neutralizer which allows for safe, bill-free multiversal travel. couldn't portal stan just use that to get out of there?"
yeaaah, parallel ford doesn't tell him about that!
he will do almost anything to keep stan with him. he is sinking his claws into that man begging him not to leave-
and stan hates him for it. tears into him with insult after insult. he can't stand this ford, why's he acting like he doesn't have everything he could ever want?
(except, of course, he doesn't really hate him. after all, this is still stanford pines, maybe not his ford but he's certainly a ford. same old easily excitable nerd he used to tease back in high school. but stan still has his own ford to attend to, one who needs him more than anything... probably... hopefully, so he shuts out the part of him which is growing fond of parallel ford. tells himself not to think too much about this one. he hardly even knows him. he shouldn't have to bother.)
-
and yeah that's. i think that's enough information to take in in a single post. there's still plenty more going on with the au that i haven't touched on here, but hey that's just the premise! i would link you to more specific posts which will help you further acquaint yourself with the au, but it's. it's 2am and i am incredibly sleepy, so instead i will simply provide you with the link to the blog archive, where you can look at all the posts on here without having to scroll endlessly trying to find specific things. enjoy!!!
if you have any more questions DON'T BE AFRAID TO COME BOTHER ME ABOUT IT !!! i loved answering this ask... <3 been meaning to rewrite a better AU Premise Post than the one i made back in august anyway lol
To the ghost! Brothers, how are you guys doing? It must be difficult watching this crap go down.
"Difficult is an understatement, pal... Believe me when I say neither of us are doing well right now. Y'know, it's,... it's funny if you think about it, honestly. All they've got is each other but they just can't stop fighting. I guess nothin' changed.
"Still, I'd strangle 'em both if I could..."
Still a WIP, but anyway...
Meet my interpretation of Better World/Parallel!Stan! One of the founding members of the International Institute of Oddology along with Ford and Fiddleford, he finds his niche in manning the stockroom. In addition, he serves on the expedition crew (and he, Ford, and Fiddleford are the only portal expedition team early on) and tackles odd jobs here and there throughout IIO.
continuing where i left off in the tags of that last post: i really think a conversation between each of the bb guys and their ghost counterparts would be really cathartic
like. we've talked about how parallel ford and portal stan calm each other's insecurities after the dust settles. for example, portal stan wishing he'd just listened and taken that stupid journal where ford wanted him to, and then parallel ford reminding him that that wouldn't have ended well for him either
but then, imagine coming face to face with an alternate version of yourself who made that exact choice you wish you'd made years ago. and they're dead.
