Little (slightly over 1k) slice of life for our darling Sea Grunks. Writing this didn't give me fuel to return to bigger WIPs, so I'm just sharing it now.
Upd. This bit, as well as a continuation were moved to AO3.
Stanley woke up and immediately got the feeling something was wrong.
It might've been the lack of sounds of the running engine or the harsh raindrops hitting the hull of their boat.
Or… Stan turned his head and started at the unblinking eyes of his twin.
“What the hell!?” Stan shouted, rolling his body away and taking some calming breath. “What are you, wanting to give me…?!”
“No, I don't want to give you a heart stroke, and luckily it shouldn't be it”, yet Ford was already reaching for Stan's wrist, holding one of his fingers over the pulse and keeping it there. “I beg your pardon”, he added with a mix of guilt and relief. “But one can never be too careful…”
“Right”, Stan lightly tapped his own chest where his heart still was beating a little too fast. “So, any reason you're back to watching me sleep? I didn't have any memory relapses, so…” he gasped with a sudden thought. “I mean I don't remember it, but that doesn't mean that didn't happen! Is that…?”
“No”, Ford shook his head and finally let go of Stan's wrist. “Your memory is fine. I just…” he looked away. “Actually, never mind. Forget I said anything”.
And that was Stan's cue to grab his glasses, put them on and observe his twin with extra attention. Immediately, he spotted all the warnings: ruffled hair was extra messy, eyebags were extra heavy. Despite all that being sort of usual for Ford who had lost any proper idea about sleep schedules (not like Stan was any better. But at least he managed to get to his bunk bed before falling asleep on the first vertical surface available, so that was a point to him and not Ford), today it looked much more prominent. There was this tenseness over the back and shoulders, and Ford's eyes lacked his recent excitement, but what was the most worrying? His fingers were still and curling tight on themselves.
“Did you sleep at all?” Stan frowned. It didn't look like usual exhaustion, but he had to start somewhere. Ford didn't look hurt or fresh from fighting someone alone while Stan was still sleeping (they had talked about it, and Ford had promised to try and wake Stan next time). But without morning intake of coffee Stan's brain refused to provide more options.
“It doesn't matter,” Ford chuckled. “But because I know you'll just keep asking: I'm not hurt, Stan’o’War is in perfect condition and there's nothing for you to worry about.” He thought some more and groaned. “And of course saying that will make you worry.”
“You know me”, Stan grinned and started getting out of his bed. “If you won't tell me what's wrong, I'll just figure it out.”
It sounded like his twin wanted to say something else, but stopped himself at the last moment.
“I’ll make you breakfast”, he said instead.
That made Stan worry even more. Ford, remembering about breakfasts by himself? Now that was a big anomaly.
***
“That…!” Stan exclaimed while chewing, but was interrupted.
“Stop talking until you're done”, Ford hissed at him, ignoring his own mug filled with coffee.
Stan nodded, not in mood to argue. He had much more important things to consider, mostly like an actually decent serving of eggs and bacon. Apparently, Stan's impression that Ford was a shitty cook was completely misplaced. Then again, the man had to survive somehow, not only for his fun and unfair interdimensional journey, but also while living in the Shack before that.
Unless he had found a magic tablecloth that could serve any food by a snap of fingers - knowing Ford it didn't sound impossible.
“That was good, thank you!” Stan finished with his plate and smiled. “Maybe I should delegate some cooking to you from now on?”
Ford sort of nodded, now actually paying attention to his coffee. “Maybe. We'll see”, he replied without much conviction in his voice.
Okay, maybe Ford just didn't like cooking. Whatever. Stan wouldn't offer it any time soon.
“So”, he offered a new conversation topic. “When are we arriving to Grundtown?”
“It's called Grundarfjörður and we're not going there today”, Ford took another gulp of coffee. “It can wait”.
Stan stared at his twin.
“Are you possessed?” after a minute of silence he tilted his head and frowned. Ford spat out his coffee in reply and started coughing.
“Not funny”, he groaned while punching his chest several times. “And I'm not possessed!”
“That's exactly what a possessed person would say”, Stan smirked, crossing his arms before him. “If you're really Sixer, prove it. What is the word we agreed on during our childhood to confirm it's really us?”
Ford rolled his eyes.
“There's none because we didn't think we'd need one”, he replied before heavily sighing. “That actually would've helped me so much. But maybe it wouldn't, not with a way he had a free reign in my mind”.
“Sorry”, Stan winced. He hated when they accidentally touched the demon topic, and at times it just was a complete accident that Sixer’s mind by association was leading him to his darkest memories.
But this time Stan probably should've thought before joking about possession.
“Anyway”, he awkwardly laughed, watching Ford slowly shrugging off his somber recollection. “Yesterday you were all for us to hurry, and today you've changed your mind? Why so?”
Ford looked at his mug that was almost empty by now. “No reason. It can wait till tomorrow or after tomorrow or even never.”
“Right, and that doesn't sound suspicious”, Stan hummed. “Okay, so no Grundport, got it. What's for today in this case? Did you find another anomaly close by? Or did a miracle finally happen and you finally decided to catch on some sleep?”
To that Ford actually laughed and some of the tension left his posture.
“Maybe tomorrow”, he shook his head. “As for today - nothing. Just us, spending time together and resting. Not doing anything reckless or dangerous…”
“Then I'll check out the compressor if we have some free time…”
“No need”, Ford replied, slightly too sharper than Stan would've expected. “I’ll fix it myself. I already know what's ticking there. You… You should just rest. Read or maybe write that romance fiction you keep wanting to continue? Isn't it time for your Duchess to finally receive the long-awaited confession?”
“I shouldn't have told you that”, Stan groaned in irritation, ignoring for now how the idea sounded really tempting. “So, you really just… okay with us wasting a whole day with no research or exploring? Don't come running with complaints about how you suddenly got bored.”
Ford flinched but smiled. “Don't worry. Today is definitely not a day for me to get bored”.
“Now, what the hell does that mean?” Stan squinted in suspicion.
Ford laughed, but this time it sounded slightly hysterical. “Nothing, I'm just praying really hard to the Universe for us to finally have one calm day where nothing happens!”
…Come to think of it, maybe it really was a miracle and his twin finally realised he was in desperate need of a day off himself.
Hello again everyone! This is Veronica with another update.
A lot of progress has been made on the zine layout, but there's still work left to do. All of the pieces are in the zine, but some of the written pieces need final touches, and the table of contents and credits sections are partially done and need to be finished. Our formatting mods are hard at work trying to finish everything that needs to be done.
In merch news, I have a few pictures!
(And another less artsy picture, sorry about that!)
Pudgy has located all of the merch boxes, and these are the pictures I've received so far. One other piece of merch, not pictured here, was printed wrong by the manufacturer and will need to be reordered, but the timeline for that will not take longer than the manufacturing of the zine itself, so that shouldn't cause any additional delays.
We appreciate everyone's patience while we try to straighten things out and finish this thing once and for all. The mod team has been constantly dealing with unexpected hurdles both in zine logistics and in our personal lives, which has made things difficult, but we are trying our hardest to get this zine and merch out to you guys, and I will post updates as I have them! 🙏
If you have any questions, comments, address updates, or refund requests, the best place to reach out is [email protected]. Thanks, y'all!
Not at the ready no, but I have a few I know how to find and remember the titles of.
A Thousand Natural Shocks by WDW is very good, A very fun combo of mystery, horror, and good ol bro moments with Ford and Stan.
Elementary Falls by Nicnac is super cute. Its about Dipper and Mabel becoming orphans young and Stan taking them in, then how his life is altered after. Very soft family fluff. Once you're past the 'Dipper and Mabels parents are dead'. They have a lot of other soft works to check out as well if you're interested.
Abandon My Eulogy by @aroace-get-out-of-my-face is a franken Stan fic. Its mostly finished, only missing the epilogue, and super good. Love fics where Ford shoots Stan. So fun. E also has other works to check out that are a good combination of silly and serious.
@artistredfox has a lot of good fics. Their Shapeshifter Series is very enjoyable (Love some Shapeshifter angst) but I really gotta recommend Dunked Below The Surface, kits reverse portal au, and Through my missteps, I cause you pain, a zombie au that gave me chills and hurts my heart. In a good way.
1 Step Forward, 20 Years Back by Ppleater, Stan and Fords arguement leads to Stan getting deaged, and everything following after.
The "Precious Moments" Incident by @caninescreations is a no weirdmaggedon au where An Incident happens. What incident? A Precious Moments one. They also have other good ones so check them out!
Can't, or Won't? by @wheretimegoestodie is a body swap au between Bill and Ford during the 1980's. Very fun Stan vs Bill where both are trying to keep Ford's body alive, and how a mind changes in another body.
This is a Gift, It Comes With A Price by Ilentari, a Dark Ford au from Stan's pov. Its very dark, so be aware.
A Stan's Best Friend by eeveelotions, a no portal au with the bro reunion happening under different circumstances. And Stan has a dog
by the skin of your teeth by Rev (apathetic_revenant), also no ford getting portaled au, and everything that follows after.
There are more I like, but I'm bad at remembering titles and always forget to bookmark them. @artistredfox has a really good archive and taste for more if you're interested.
A funny thing about this drawing is that I was working on it when I started to read this mystery trio fic by @impishnature and it was a really big surprise for me to see that there was a scene that looked exactly like my pic.
I was thinking in a more friendly enviroment when I did this but I couldn’t avoid to see the similarities.
andulkaphoto
dededos
janainaart
theartofmadeline
gummygunk
pixelskylines
