I’m leaning towards something more along the timeline of post-Weirdmageddon, possibly before Sea Grunkles.
Perhaps Ma Pines has passed and Stan (Barley) and Ford (Ian) receive a box of her stuff. They find a book of psychology, but there’s a handwritten note in Ma’s handwriting about how to bring somebody’s mind back for a day; not a reanimation of their physical form, but their mind, memories, and thoughts that take the image of their body and also can affect the physical world (bc of convenience). There’s also a special crystal that enables the spell.
And they’re both excited, aren’t they? Ford hasn’t seen her in more than 30 years; he was horrible at keeping contact with his family once he left for college. Stan got to see her in his place once he fell through the portal, right? So why’s he acting so non-Stan and distant about it?
Maybe Ford’s so distracted by Stan’s weird behavior—because they promised to be honest—Ford accidentally—it can’t be a memory lapse, didn’t he remember their Ma—and oh no.
He dropped the stone in the middle of reading the words, and there’s a crack in it, but Ma’s there anyway and… where is her top half??
They can dissipate and bring her back as many times as they want within the 24 hours after that initial spell, but once the day passes, she’s gone forever.
Ma recognizes the touch of Ford’s six-fingered hand; she seems to recognize Stan is one of her sons, even if she can’t understand it’s Stan himself, alive and well, and not Shermie…
They won’t get better results without a new crystal, so they rush all the research they can, and just can’t find anything, so they turn to Fiddledore (manticore). And maybe he’s hesitant on helping them because of what happened the last time Ford tried some crazy experiment, but after a long talk, he does give in and reveals that he heard there’s said to be a mountain range across a nearby lake that carries the crystal…
Well, time to go sailing! The two brothers talk to the twins about what they’re doing before the set on their adventure to find a new crystal, placing them under Fiddleford’s care as it’s still summer.
And while hanging out with the twins Fiddleford remembers something he’d previously forgotten; there’s also said to be a dragon guarding the mountain range. That’s not good.
So we have their mom and manticore filled in by Fiddleford and the twins, racing to reach and warn Stan and Ford in time.
I haven’t totally figured out how the rising action would fit in this world, but maybe there’s the conflict between Stan and Ford in how Stan wants to do everything based on the exact wording of the spell (maybe it was vague or confusing in some parts—it says the mind is a maze, Sixer, there’s a maze of underground tunnels, I really think we should take that way) while Ford struggles not to let his logical ways take over (really, Stanley, it would be most efficient to graph a line from point A to point B to ensure the straightest and quickest path, no matter how many houses and canyons we have to walk through).
The moment in the movie that really spoke to me as Stan and Ford was the whole “I don’t think he’s a screw-up!” and the revealing spell magic.
Maybe they meet a creature that won’t let them pass unless they’re truthful, which is way too close to the whole truth teeth thing, and Stan’s not going through that twice, so Ford communicates with the creature, and maybe this creature wonders why he’s traveling with this man who seems so distant and unwilling to help and appears to have stolen his face, isnt he a burden?
Ford says that Stan’s never been a burden. And then it starts to attack and declares they can’t cross. Now they gotta run with Ma.
For Ian learning how to use magic translating to Ford, I imagine it might be similar to Stan trying to teach him how to fight. Maybe they have to use strength to tear out the crystals. Not with gadgets and fancy alien-killing techniques, Sixer, just throw a punch like we’re boxing again.
I don’t know. I just really want to write a fic of this AU one day.
Let me know if you have thoughts or additions on this!!!
The MYSTERY TRIO in “Not, In Fact, a Ghost Story”!
WHEW.
This comic has been a long time coming, as folks who have followed this blog and seen the various teasers over the past year will know. Actually I’ve been working on it even longer than that!
This was done as a trade for @pirably, in exchange for the wonderful Portal Ford plush he made! (Seen here.) The characters of Aru (big skull-faced monster) and Marun (the cat with the interdimensional-projection abilities) are two of his OCs who are friends of Portal Ford (see links to his tags for more of them!). This story took shape between us, and all through the process, he gave me invaluable feedback and really made this better. (I’ll say right now: the brilliant Bill-eye layout of page 8 was his idea; my original sketch was much more boring.)
While I’m terribly overdue in finishing my half of the trade, it’s probably fortunate I took so long, as this would have been 10x harder to do without being able to work digitally in CSP, and probably wouldn’t have come out as well either..
I realized at the end that the theme and atmosphere of the story was just spooky enough to make for a good Halloween post. So, also:
HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
What with various things, could not get something new done for Halloween this year, so here’s a re-run of my big project from last year! (Originally posted 10/31/2020.)
It can also be found on AO3 here (where the pages might be a bit bigger than the view on Tumblr.)
It’s that time again! Time for an Art Year in Review!
Ehhhhhn. On the one hand, not as productive a year as 2020. Started out well! Went to hell in the third quarter. But I’m pretty happy with the things I did get done? Boy, I sure did draw Ford a lot! (This is not a negative, just an observation.)
49 total pieces of art; 107 individual figures.
Truly hoping to get a grip and get back in the swing of things as this new year starts!
it’s finally here! preorders are now openfor@gf10yearslaterzine, so here’s a handful of tiny clippings from my piece! this is no doubt the hardest i’ve ever worked on any single art piece, and i’m so excited for people to see it ;w;
preorders are open until june 30th, so get it while you can!
Still love the Mystery trio AU. I hope Stan and Fiddleford will meet somehow. Or maybe Stan found the bunker where Fiddleford is? What if Fiddleford is making killer robots?!? IT WILL BE AWESOME I TELL YA!!
Well I miss Mayberry, sittin’ on the porch drinkin’ ice cold cherry coke~
I’ll still die on my headcanon hill that Fidds and Emma-May were good friends since childhood, so have some teenage goobers I couldn’t decide on which version I liked best, so two others below the cut
Maybe time running out is a gift I’ll work hard till the end of my shift And give you every second I can find And hope it isn’t me who’s left behind [x]
this has been sitting in my sketchbook getting smudgy for a few months I have a lot of softness for them comforting each other post-Weirdmageddon and grappling with trauma, their own mortality, the whole nine yards
I have two last requests, before I walk away from Tumblr (and Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Reddit, all that good stuff).
Please don’t respond using Tumblr notes/PMs unless you’re really fast about it, because after the midnight where May 19th becomes May 20th, I won’t see them. My email address is cordyceps DOT tickles AT gmail DOT com. Please send anything to do with these requests/comments there.
So.
My time in the Gravity Falls fandom was magical, to me. Never have I been surrounded by such vibrant, clever, funny people, on the other side of my computer screen.
I remember skipping my partner and I’s anniversary, because the final Weirdmageddon episode ended up airing that day. (He understood.)
Tracking the scavenger hunt progress, awash with secondhand anxiety and excitement.
Donating ridiculous amounts of the money I made from my government job I had back then to LGBTQ+ support organizations, in return for asking Alex Hirsch and Dana Terrace to draw my weird little Fiddleford x Shapeshifter ship, twice.
Meeting Alex, who sent me on one last hunt to find the Axolotl, and who gave me the name of the dimension where Shapefiddler was canon.
I leave the Internet with my happy memories trailing out behind me.
BUT.
There’s two regrets I have. Things that I missed out on, or lost, that I would like to have in my life, if possible. If I don’t hear from anyone about these two things, no worries– I will head offline with an unburdened heart, knowing that these were just the two things that got away from me. Life is full of those, and I remain all flavors of grateful.
One is a copy of “Summer Memories,” an art zine hosted years and years ago by @gfzine . I happened to be in rehab and away from any Internet access the whole time preorders were being taken, and I wish I could’ve seen all the amazing art people were posting to Tumblr afterwards, collected in one print copy. I will pay ridiculous amounts of money for this zine. I’m serious when I say, name a price that strikes you as a reasonable amount for someone’s heart’s desire, and I will probably be able to pay it.
The other is an audio file– the “lost episode” of the Mystery Trio radio podcast, which I believe was started by @mtanimate , put on entirely by fans of the show. I was beyond honored when they reached out to me, offering me a copy of the file where they read one of my 18+ fanfics as Stan, Ford, and Fiddleford, which I was delighted by, because it was a very silly fic, and I welcomed someone making light of it. Alas, the phone that contained that sole copy of the file soon took an unexpected tumble through a washing machine, destroying everything on it. Try as I might, I can’t seem to track down the folks who sent it to me. So, I’m trying one last time.
[flips through my cue cards] …and I think that’s it! :3
