GIVE US MORE DETAILS SISTER
OH ABOUT THE FAE AU?? SURE
Really I haven’t thought as deeply about it as my mermaid one lol but basically one day after school Ford comes home crying because the bullying is just so bad, and while Caryn cleans him up he wishes he had someone with him all the time so he wouldn’t feel so alone and ostracized;; and at this point Shermie’s either moved out of the house already or is about to and he can’t be around Ford to protect him all the time.
So Caryn sits Ford down and tells him how he actually had a brother—a twin, in fact, younger than him by 15 minutes, and how they were practically inseparable since birth. However, the birth was complicated and the family was under a lot of financial pressure, and since the Pines family has always sorta been surrounded by the supernatural and the mysterious, Caryn started getting really bad vibes;; but by the time she realized what was going on it was too late. She tells Ford that one night she heard him crying and when she rushed into the room Stan was already gone.
Filbrick says it was meant to be, that maybe it was sort of lucky for Stan to have been lost because it makes things easier on them (and isn’t that just awful?) and that maybe someone had kidnapped Stan. Caryn thinks it’s the work of fae, who are known to take children away from bad guardians or rough situations, or sometimes just because they can. She grew up on tales of kids being snatched by fae and was always warned to be careful, because they never usually come back. She has a feeling deep in her gut that Stan had been taken by fae, and that he’s still out there somewhere.
Of course Ford is ECSTATIC. His love for the supernatural and the fact that he has a long lost twin brother all rolled into one big mystery? Hell yeah he’s gonna get involved! From then on he takes comfort in knowing that if Stan were with him he could face any sort of challenge, and so it becomes easier for him to tolerate the bullying and to start working towards his goal. He dreams of meeting Stan and bringing him home again, of being the duo they were always supposed to be. And that’s what leads him to college and eventually Gravity Falls :’) Filbrick chides him often because “You’re too obsessed with the idea of your dead brother” and Ford always heatedly tells him “He’s not dead!! Just lost!”
But yes Stan did get taken as an infant and sort of grew up traveling around. The fae population is sort of sparse so they go from place to place, secluded areas safe from humans—but they still get up to their mischievousness often. Note that fae are different from regular fairies—they tend to be a lot...darker with intentions and aren’t as fun and lively as fairies. Still though Stan comes to love his adoptive fae family and is fiercely protective of them, even though he knows he’s different since he was a human originally (but I’m sure over time their fae magic rubbed off on him so he’s probably got some kind of cool abilities). Eventually they settle in Gravity Falls since it’s a hotspot for the supernatural and weird and they decide to stay there—and eventually, when Ford moves in, Stan encounters him for the first time... ;)
