☯ The scene near the end of Weirdmagedon part three, where Stan's had his memory wiped
Send me ‘☯ + a scene from my characters canon’ and I will drabble it from my character’s POV.
“Oh my gosh, Grunkle Stan, you did it!”
Before anyone else, Mabel was right there at the old man’s side, fez in hand, which she set upon Stan’s head at a jaunty angle. The girl could barely contain her enthusiasm. Grunkle Stan was blinking dazedly at his surroundings, and Dipper and Grunkle Ford were hanging back with apprehensive looks; but Mabel didn’t even stop to consider why. She was triumphant; they’d won! Stan’s plan had worked! Bill was gone!
There’d be time enough to come to terms with how traumatised they all were later; for now, celebration was the only thing on Mabel’s mind. She was barely containing herself from bouncing with exuberance as she placed her hands on Stan’s shoulders, grinning from ear to ear.
Until Stan opened his mouth to speak, and wiped the expression clean off her face.
“Oh uh, hey there… kiddo. What’s your name?”
His own face wore a grin, an expression sincere but also quite puzzled. He quite clearly didn’t seem to know who he was talking to, and Mabel pulled her hands back, baffled.
He… was joking, right? It was a joke? He was just pretending to…
She forced a weak chuckle, not quite able to convince herself.
“Grunkle Stan?”
“Heh. Who you taking to?”
Again, he sounded nothing short of sincere; Mabel knew how Stan acted when he was joking at their expense, and this wasn’t it. If he had been joking, he would surely have been laughing at his own cleverness by now; but this utter blankness…
Not only was it not the right response to if he’d been joking, it wasn’t like Stan at all. Kneeling there in the woods, looking around for who she was talking to, he looked so uncharacteristically vulnerable…
And he didn’t know her? Didn’t even know himself?
It couldn’t be. It couldn’t- IT COULDN’T!
“C- c’mon, it’s me.”
Without conscious thought, she was walking towards him, stopping only a foot or so from his face, forcing a grin that she didn’t feel. She didn’t get it, didn’t understand- Why was Stan acting like this? What was wrong?
She just had to remind him, didn’t she? Remind him, and remind him, and remind him again–
“It’s me, Grunkle Stan! Grunkle Stan–!”
Dipper’s hands were on her shoulders, dragging her backwards. She grasped for Stan, trying to physically latch onto him in spite of Dipper’s efforts. Her feet slipped on the dirt as she resisted her brother, failed.
“–it’s me–”
“We had to erase his mind to defeat Bill.”
Grunkle Ford’s voice cut into her struggles, stopping Mabel cold. She could only stare at Stan, uncomprehending; and then, as Ford’s words sank in, it hit her like a ton of bricks. The child’s hands flew to cover her mouth.
“It’s all gone.”
She shook her head, struggling to deny Ford’s words. She was vaguely aware of Dipper’s hand on her shoulder, a touch that might have been reassuring at any other time, but now…
Now…
She didn’t want her brother right then; she wanted her Grunkle. She wanted Stan.
And he was never coming back.
“Stan has no idea but, he did it. He saved the world. He saved me.”
Mabel was only dimly aware that Ford had stepped forwards. That he was kneeling now, one hand on the uncomprehending Stan’s shoulder. That Ford’s voice was breaking as even he struggled with his emotion.
“You’re our hero, Stanley.”
Those words were enough to break her. Tears had already been flooding Mabel’s eyes, blurring her vision; now, as if a dam burst, they spilled down her cheeks as the girl sobbed into her hands.
He’d sacrificed himself to save them?
She didn’t want that.
She wanted him. With his selfish ways and his casual lawbreaking and his old-man-humour that she never understood... She suddenly missed all of them, even the things she’d used to dislike about him.
But most of all, she missed him.
Her Grunkle Stan...
Grunkle Stan...
Was gone for good.
