What if the memories of Ford is the last piece of puzzle to Stan’s recovery?
What if slowly Stan remembers Waddles, then Mabel and Dipper, then Soos and Wendy, even Gideon, but still has no idea why there’s a stranger looking just like himself?
“You’re never strange.” “Don’t ever change…” “You’re all I’ve got… No matter what…”
SO I HEARD THIS SONG FROM THE BEAUTY AND THE BEAST MUSICAL AND I THOUGHT IT FIT WELL FOR STAN AND MABEL AND aaaAAAAAAA I’M C R Y I N G I really really wanted to do another animatic, and I ALSO wanted to do something of Stan and Mabel being their sweet selves, and this is what came out of it!!! So here you go!!!! Ten hours of work into one minute!! I’m so tiRED BUT ALSO REALLY REALLY REALLY HAPPY
(Also!! It’s s bit easier if you just imagine “papa” and Grunkle Stan and “daughter” as niece!! )
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!!!
Happy Thanksgiving to U.S. peeps! I hope the day is a good one and as stress-free as possible, given… everything.
Last year around Halloween I first did a piece with Stan and Ford encountering these Cornstalk Men while traveling in New Jersey. I’d wanted to do a sequel, but wasn’t able to get it done for this year’s Halloween. But, the Cornstalk Men, while undeniably eerie, are certainly a Harvest Spirit kind of a deal, so Thanksgiving seems like an appropriate time to visit with them. (In fact, I had intended to do a whole background for this, basing it on the Corn Maze location that the gang visited in Roadside Attraction, on the theory that Stan and Ford got an introduction to the Oregonian Cornstalk Men from their NJ bretheren…. but obviously I didn’t manage that. Ah well.)
I can’t take credit for the pun of Dipper’s sweater. I was googling for ideas and a bunch of shirts in that vein popped up, and I knew immediately that I had to use it.
Of course I paid a visit to the originals in October:
I would usually link to the past Cornstalk Men posts, but because Tumblr is being a butt about linking right now, I will instead say that if you go to this post on my blog, you can hit the “cornstalk men” tag to see the previous posts. (Including an explanation behind these things.)
Late, but here’s a Tgiving commemorative post from 2018. I still kinda like this. I should do more with the Cornstalk Men at some point. Alas, I did not get to see them this year; I think they’ll be gone by the time I go down there around Xmas.
